In its ruling, the court gave people and businesses regulated by such agencies ammunition to file lawsuits challenging their power, lawyers and scholars said.
The target of the plaintiffs in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board was the nonprofit organization created in 2002 to oversee the firms that audit publicly traded companies. The plaintiffs argued that the board’s setup violated the separation of powers by giving executive responsibilities to officials beyond presidential control.
The court said board members were too insulated from removal by the president. But, instead of throwing out the board or the entire Sarbanes-Oxley Act, as defenders of the law had feared, the court struck down only the part that said the Securities and Exchange Commission needs good cause to remove board members. The court said the SEC has the power to remove board members at will.
“The consequence is that the Board may continue to function as before, but its members may be removed at will by the Commission,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. "With the tenure restrictions excised, the Act remains ‘fully operative as a law,’ " he wrote.
WaPo article on yesterday’s Supreme Court decision
This decision seems to change the number of strikes needed for an out! When did the Supremes get the right to alter specific sections of legislation to its liking? Shouldn’t they have required Congress to amend the legislation?