Document Type

Review

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy invalidated the SEC’s mechanism for adjudicating fraud claims seeking civil penalties on the ground that the adjudications violated the Seventh Amendment. To explain that conclusion, the Court invoked, among other sources…Baron de Montesquieu (who was quoted by Alexander Hamilton after all!) and William Blackstone. Debates about constitutional interpretation are often peppered with references to a few Enlightenment thinkers, such as Montesquieu, Blackstone, and John Locke. Indeed, even nonconstitutional interpretation debates are as well; in the Court’s recent decision overturning Chevron deference, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Justice Gorsuch worked in some references to Blackstone in his concurrence.


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