Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-86_l5gm.pdf
Page Number: 7.0

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AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. v. FTC 

Opinion of the Court 

Our task today is not to resolve those challenges; rather, 
it is to decide where they may be heard.  The enforcement 
actions  at  issue  were  initiated  in  the  Securities  and  Ex-
change Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commis-
sion (FTC).  Most objections to those Commissions’ proceed-
ings  follow  a  well-trod  path.  As  prescribed  by  statute,  a 
party makes its claims first within the Commission itself, 
and then (if needed) in a federal court of appeals.  The par-
ties here, however, sidestepped that review scheme.  Seek-
ing  to  stop  the  administrative  proceedings,  they  instead 
brought their claims in federal district court.  The question 
presented is whether the district courts have jurisdiction to 
hear  those  suits—and  so  to  resolve  the  parties’  constitu-
tional  challenges  to  the  Commissions’  structure.  The  an-
swer is yes.  The ordinary statutory review scheme does not 
preclude a district court from entertaining these extraordi-
nary claims. 

I 
Congress established the SEC to protect investors in se-
curities markets, and created the FTC to promote fair com-
petition.  The Commissions enforce, respectively, the Secu-
rities Exchange Act and the FTC Act (among other laws). 
See 15 U. S. C. §78a et seq. (Exchange Act); 15 U. S. C. §41 
et seq. (FTC Act).  Those Acts authorize the Commissions to 
address statutory violations either by bringing civil suits in 
federal  district  court  or  by  instituting  their  own  adminis-
trative  proceedings.  See  §§78u(d),  78u–1,  78u–2,  78u–3; 
§§45(b), (m). 

When a Commission elects the latter option—as in these 
two cases—it typically delegates the initial adjudication to 
an ALJ.  See §78d–1(a); note following §41.  To foster inde-
pendence, each Commission’s ALJs are removable “only for 
good cause” as determined by the Merit Systems Protection 
Board  (MSPB)—a  separate  agency  whose  members  are 
themselves removable by the President only for cause, such