Gathering Storm: SEC v. Jarkesy and Implications for Environmental Enforcement
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) enforcement program has long been the backbone of environmental enforcement in the United States. That program may now be bound for dramatic change. This Article analyzes the threats posed to the Agency’s program by the U.S. Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, in which three constitutional questions presented cut to the core of administrative enforcement. The Court’s decision there will foreshadow the outcome of similar challenges currently facing EPA, and the Agency’s historically robust enforcement apparatus may depend on its ability to distinguish its administrative enforcement from the SEC’s. Jarkesy and similar challenges to the foundations of administrative law signal that a reimagining of environmental enforcement in the United States may soon be necessary.