Plain-English summary
Court says district courts can hear constitutional challenges to the FTC’s structure and existence
The Court held that federal district courts keep the power to hear constitutional challenges to the Federal Trade Commission even though the FTC Act provides for review of cease-and-desist orders in the courts of appeals. The judgment from the Ninth Circuit was reversed and the case remanded.
Why this matters
The decision preserves a principal route for parties to seek a federal trial-court hearing when they assert constitutional defects in the government’s agencies. It prevents agencies from shielding broad constitutional attacks behind specialized review schemes and ensures access to lower federal courts for such claims.
Who may feel it
- Businesses and individuals subject to agency enforcement (FTC and SEC and similar agencies)
- Federal agencies that operate under statutes with specialized review routes
- Lower federal courts and litigants who raise constitutional challenges to agencies
- Government lawyers defending agency structure and powers
Key questions
- Does Congress’s grant of exclusive court-of-appeals review of final agency orders implicitly remove district-court jurisdiction over constitutional challenges to the agency itself?