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Page Number: 4

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the 
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to 
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order that 
corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 18–1501 
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CHARLES C. LIU, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. 
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 

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

[June 22, 2020] 

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. 
In Kokesh v. SEC, 581 U. S. ___ (2017), this Court held 
that  a  disgorgement  order  in  a  Securities  and  Exchange
Commission (SEC) enforcement action imposes a “penalty”
for the purposes of 28 U. S. C. §2462, the applicable statute 
of limitations.  In so deciding, the Court reserved an ante-
cedent question: whether, and to what extent, the SEC may 
seek “disgorgement” in the first instance through its power
to award “equitable relief ” under 15 U. S. C. §78u(d)(5), a
power  that  historically  excludes  punitive  sanctions.  The 
Court holds today that a disgorgement award that does not 
exceed a wrongdoer’s net profits and is awarded for victims
is equitable relief permissible under §78u(d)(5).  The judg-
ment  is  vacated,  and  the  case  is  remanded  for  the  courts 
below to ensure the award was so limited. 

I 
A 
Congress  authorized  the  SEC  to  enforce  the  Securities 
Act  of  1933,  48  Stat.  74,  as  amended,  15  U. S. C.  §77a  et 
seq., and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 881,