Horse Racing Law at Center of Latest Challenge to Agency Judges

A constitutional challenge to the US Department of Agriculture’s adjudication process could be the latest case to chip away at the so-called administrative state, as a federal appeals court hears oral arguments Tuesday.

Joe Manis contends the USDA’s adjudication system violates his Seventh Amendment right to litigate common law claims in an Article III court. It’s the latest challenge to an agency’s use of administrative law judges since the US Supreme Court’s June decision in SEC v. Jarkesy. There, the justices said the SEC’s civil penalties for securities fraud concern private rights that invoke the Seventh Amendment right to a ...