Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments for Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, which challenges the authority of the administrative state. The defendant is George Jarkesy, a conservative radio host who was fined over half-a-million dollars by the SEC for allegedly defrauding investors and appealed this sentence by arguing that the SEC does not have the constitutional authority to do this. //

Ignoring the alarmism, Rosenblum’s reasoning somehow combines naivety and cynicism into an incoherent yet typically leftist argument. The cynical aspect is that he confuses the whole government with an executive agency. This means that instead of protecting the rights of its citizens, as is explicitly stated in the Declaration of Independence, the government exists to tell its citizens what to do and how to do it. If the government is prevented from doing this, then Americans will automatically degenerate into savages and resort to harming one another in every way possible.

The naive aspect is that he assumes that executive agencies are actually neutral, trustworthy, and competent. Whether it’s the SEC, IRS, or the FBI, their agents are professionals with a heart of gold. They could never be corrupted with unbridled authority or gargantuan budgets. They would never target specific Americans, conduct political witch hunts, or neglect their actual responsibilities. //

Moreover, it is highly debatable just how honest and effective the SEC has been in keeping investors safe and preventing market manipulation. Whether it’s the insider trading of politicians like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, the multibillion-dollar fraud of scammers like Sam Bankman-Fried, or the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, it seems questionable that the SEC focuses its efforts on the financial shenanigans of a relatively small investor like George Jarkesy. And in today’s political climate, it would be foolish to assume that Jarkesy’s conservative positions didn’t also factor into the charges. //

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Jarkesy, it could make the market free once again and significantly weaken an unruly administrative state.