Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-86_l5gm.pdf
Page Number: 43

10 

AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. v. FTC 

GORSUCH, J., concurring in judgment 

Eventually, she found a position at a small company called 
The  Hall  Group.    Soon,  however,  she  discovered  that  the 
owner, David Hall, was not just abrasive but dishonest.  At 
one point, he even added Ms. Cochran’s name to the firm’s 
business license without her permission, all to facilitate his 
idea of rebranding his company as “The Hall Group CPAs.” 
When Ms. Cochran protested, Mr. Hall offered her a choice: 
become a nonequity partner with no increase in pay so that 
he could use the new name or leave the firm.  Ms. Cochran 
chose to quit and put the whole ordeal behind her. 

Or  so  she  thought.  Years  later,  in  2016,  Ms.  Cochran 
learned that the SEC had initiated an enforcement proceed-
ing against Mr. Hall, another of his former employees, and 
herself.  The SEC charged Ms. Cochran with violating “Rule 
2–02(b)(1) of Regulation S-X and Section 13(a) of the Secu-
rities  Exchange  Act  of 1934  and  Rules  13a–1 and  13a–13 
thereunder,” as well as “aid[ing] and abett[ing] . . . Rule 2– 
02(b)(1) violations.”  In re Hall, SEC Release No. 3–17228, 
p. 1 (2017).  In English, the SEC alleged that Ms. Cochran 
had failed to complete auditing checklists, leaving certain 
sections of certain forms “blank.”  Id., at 12–13.  The agency 
brought these charges even though there was “no evidence” 
that the incomplete paperwork had resulted in any “mone-
tary harm to clients or investors.”  Id., at 28. 

The SEC elected to proceed against Ms. Cochran before 
its  own  internal  tribunal  rather  than  (as  it  could  have)  a 
court  of  law.   The  agency  assigned  the  case  to  one  of  its 
hearing  officers  (an  “administrative  law  judge”  or  “ALJ”). 
Reportedly,  that  ALJ made  a  practice  of  warning  defend-
ants during settlement discussions that he had “never ruled 
against the agency’s enforcement division.”  J. Eaglesham, 
SEC Judges’ Fairness Is in Spotlight, Wall St. J., Nov. 23, 
2015, p. C6.  It seems, though, Ms. Cochran didn’t take the 
hint.  She refused to settle and sought to represent herself 
in the hearing that followed.  It did not go well.  Just as her 
hearing was about to start, her former boss settled his own