Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1434_ancf.pdf
Page Number: 63

16 

UNITED STATES v. ARTHREX, INC. 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

deeply into the penumbras of the Clauses to identify new
structural limitations. 

III 
In the end, the Court’s remedy underscores that it is am-
bivalent about the idea of administrative patent judges ac-
tually being principal officers.  Instead of holding as much 
explicitly,  the  Court  rewrites  the  statutory  text  to  ensure 
that the Director can directly review Board decisions.  Ante, 
at  21–22  (plurality  opinion).  Specifically,  the  Court  de-
clares unenforceable the statutory provision that “prevents 
the Director from reviewing the decisions of the [Board] on
his  own.”  Ante,  at  22.    And  as  a  remedy,  the  Court  “re-
mand[s] to the Acting Director for him to decide whether to
rehear the petition.”  Ibid.  In that way, the Court makes 
extra clear what should already be obvious: Administrative
patent judges are inferior officers. 

But  neither  reading  of  the  majority’s  opinion—(1)  that
administrative patent judges are principal officers that the 
Court has converted to inferior officers, or (2) that adminis-
trative  patent  judges  are  inferior  officers  whose  decisions
must constitutionally be reversible by the Director alone—
supports its proposed remedy.

Take  the  principal  officer  view.    If  the  Court  truly  be-
lieved  administrative  patent  judges  are  principal  officers, 
then the Court would need to vacate the Board’s decision. 
As this Court has twice explained, “the ‘appropriate’ rem-
edy for an adjudication tainted with an appointments vio-
lation  is  a  new  ‘hearing  before  a  properly  appointed’  offi-
cial.”  Lucia, 585 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 12) (quoting Ryder 
v. United States, 515 U. S. 177, 183, 188 (1995)).  If admin-
istrative  patent  judges  are  (or  were)  constitutionally  defi-
cient principal officers, then surely Arthrex is entitled to a
new hearing before officers untainted by an appointments