D.C. Judge Grants Joint Meta-FTC Stay Request Pending Outcome of Jarkesy Case

U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss for the District of Columbia adopted the joint request of Meta and the FTC to stay Meta’s constitutional challenge of the commission’s administrative enforcement proceeding against the company for alleged privacy violations, said the judge’s text-only docket entry Wednesday (docket 1:23-cv-03562). Meta and the FTC sought the stay, pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (docket 22-859), said their joint meet and confer statement Monday (see 2404160033). Meta alleges that the FTC is structured so that in “administrative adjudications,” including the proceeding against Meta, the agency “has a dual role as prosecutor and judge,” in violation of the due process clause. It also alleges that FTC commissioners exercise executive authority while being “unconstitutionally insulated from removal” by the president. The questions at stake in Jarkesy include whether the statutory provisions that empower the SEC to initiate and adjudicate administrative enforcement proceedings violate the Seventh Amendment. Also at stake is whether statutory provisions that authorize the SEC to choose to enforce the securities laws through an agency adjudication instead of filing a district court action violate the nondelegation doctrine. The case also asks whether Congress violated Article II by granting for-cause removal protection to administrative law judges in agencies whose heads enjoy for-cause removal protection.