If you had asked us last week, we would have predicted that the Supreme Court’s momentous AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC decision last year, in which the Court struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s nearly 50-year practice of seeking equitable monetary relief under Section 13b of the FTC Act, would be the most significant decision about FTC jurisprudence we would see from the Supreme Court for a while.
However, in a surprising move, the Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in Axon Enterprises Inc. v. FTC to address whether Congress intended to strip federal district courts of jurisdiction to hear challenges to the constitutionality of the FTC’s structure, procedures, and very existence. Importantly, however, the Court declined to directly address the petitioner’s challenge to the constitutionality of the FTC. Still, the Court’s decision could significantly impact how future targets of FTC enforcement investigations and actions will challenge the FTC’s constitutional limits.Continue Reading Federal Trade Commission Goes to the Supreme Court Again, This Time in a Constitutional Challenge