Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-859new_kjfm.pdf
Page Number: 61

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

1 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 22–859 
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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, 
PETITIONER v. GEORGE R. JARKESY, JR., 
ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT 

[June 27, 2024] 

JUSTICE  SOTOMAYOR,  with  whom  JUSTICE  KAGAN  and 

JUSTICE JACKSON join, dissenting. 

Throughout  our  Nation’s  history,  Congress  has  author-
ized agency adjudicators to find violations of statutory obli-
gations and award civil penalties to the Government as an
injured  sovereign.  The  Constitution,  this  Court  has  said, 
does not require these civil-penalty claims belonging to the
Government  to  be  tried  before  a  jury  in  federal  district 
court.  Congress can instead assign them to an agency for
initial adjudication, subject to judicial review.  This Court 
has blessed that practice repeatedly, declaring it “the ‘set-
tled judicial construction’ ” all along; indeed, “ ‘from the be-
ginning.’ ”    Atlas  Roofing  Co.  v.  Occupational  Safety  and 
Health Review Comm’n, 430 U. S. 442, 460 (1977).  Unsur-
prisingly,  Congress  has  taken  this  Court’s  word  at  face 
value.  It has enacted more than 200 statutes authorizing 
dozens of agencies to impose civil penalties for violations of 
statutory obligations.  Congress had no reason to anticipate 
the  chaos  today’s  majority  would  unleash  after  all  these 
years.

Today, for the very first time, this Court holds that Con-
gress  violated  the  Constitution  by  authorizing  a  federal 
agency to adjudicate a  statutory  right that inheres in the