The 2023–2024 Supreme Court term marks a watershed moment in American administrative law. In a trilogy of pivotal rulings—Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and SEC v. Jarkesy—the Court decisively curtailed longstanding doctrinal foundations supporting agency autonomy. While Loper Bright garnered national attention for its explicit repudiation of Chevron deference and Corner Post opened federal courts to pre-enforcement challenges of agency rules long considered settled, it is Jarkesy that arguably delivers the most profound challenge to the administrative state. By recognizing that the Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury trial in agency enforcement actions seeking civil penalties, the Court destabilized the adjudicative mechanisms upon which many agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB,” “the Board”), have long relied. Already, Jarkesy has generated legal uncertainty surrounding the constitutional validity of agency proceedings in which legal remedies are pursued through non-Article III forums.3 Corporate defendants are invoking the Jarkesy decision in agency enforcement actions, with varying results in different federal courts.
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