A security technology company and an accountant claiming unfair treatment at the hands of federal agencies’ in-house administrative tribunals urged a seemingly receptive Supreme Court on Nov. 7 to make it easier to challenge their structure.
The Supreme Court could use the opportunity to rein in the so-called administrative state and reaffirm the separation of powers doctrine that prevents any specific branch of the government from exercising the core functions of another. The idea behind the doctrine is to discourage the concentration of power and make sure there are checks and balances.
Critics of the administrative state claim that in-house adjudications are unfair because the tribunals, unlike regular courts, lack fixed evidentiary rules, allowing the agencies to function as prosecutor, judge, and jury. They argue that the tribunals are unconstitutional because they are not politically accountable….