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2 

LUCIA v. SEC 

BREYER, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part 
Opinion of BREYER, J. 

sary  for”  hearings  governed  by  the  Administrative  Proce-
dure Act.  5 U. S. C. §3105; see also Administrative Proce-
dure Act, §11, 60 Stat. 244 (original version, which refers 
to  “examiners”  as  administrative  law  judges  were  then 
called).  In the case of  the Securities and Exchange Com-
mission,  the  relevant  “agency”  is  the  Commission  itself. 
But  the  Commission  did  not  appoint  the  Administrative
Law Judge who presided over Lucia’s hearing.  Rather, the 
Commission’s  staff  appointed  that  Administrative  Law 
Judge,  without  the  approval  of  the  Commissioners  them-
selves.  See ante, at 1; App. to Pet. for Cert. 298a–299a. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  Administrative  Procedure  Act 
permits  the  Commission  to  delegate  its  power  to  appoint
its  administrative  law  judges  to  its  staff.    We  have  held 
that,  for  purposes  of  the  Constitution’s  Appointments
Clause,  the  Commission  itself  is  a  “ ‘Hea[d]’ ”  of  a  “ ‘De-
partmen[t].’ ”    Free  Enterprise  Fund,  supra,  at  512–513. 
Thus,  reading  the  statute  as  referring  to  the  Commission
itself,  and  not  to  its  staff,  avoids  a  difficult  constitutional 
question,  namely,  the  very  question  that  the  Court  an-
swers  today:  whether  the  Commission’s  administrative
law  judges  are  constitutional  “inferior  Officers”  whose 
appointment Congress may vest only in the President, the 
“Courts  of  Law,”  or  the  “Heads  of  Departments.”    Art. II, 
§2, cl. 2; see United States v. Jin Fuey Moy, 241 U. S. 394, 
401 (1916) (“A statute must be construed, if fairly possible,
so as to avoid not only the conclusion that it is unconstitu-
tional but also grave doubts upon that score”).

I  have  found  no  other  statutory  provision  that  would 
permit  the  Commission  to  delegate  the  power  to  appoint
its  administrative  law  judges  to  its  staff.    The  statute 
establishing and governing the Commission does allow the 
Commission  to  “delegate,  by  published  order  or  rule,  any 
of  its  functions  to  a  division  of  the  Commission,  an  indi-
vidual  Commissioner,  an  administrative  law  judge,  or  an 
employee or employee board.”  15 U. S. C. §78d–1(a).  But