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Administrative Law Keyed to Mawshaw
Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Citation:
561 U.S. 477, 130 S. Ct. 3138, 177 L. Ed. 2d 706 (2010)Facts
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 created the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to regulate the accounting industry following several major accounting scandals. The Board consists of five members appointed to staggered five-year terms by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Board members can only be removed by the SEC “for good cause shown” under specific statutory conditions. The SEC Commissioners themselves are understood to be removable by the President only for good cause. The Board has extensive powers to regulate accounting firms, including rulemaking, conducting inspections, and imposing sanctions. Beckstead and Watts, an accounting firm subject to Board regulation, and the Free Enterprise Fund challenged the constitutionality of the Board, arguing that the dual for-cause removal provisions unconstitutionally insulated Board members from presidential control, violating separation of powers principles. They also challenged the Board’s appointment as violating the Appointments Clause.
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