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Chief Justice Roberts’s Two Landmark Opinions Turn Tide Toward Liberty
UNITED STATES – JANUARY 30: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts listens to President Donald … [+]
Just in time for America’s 248th birthday, Chief Justice John Roberts has gifted our nation two landmark decisions that turn the tables on unlawful administrative power and turn the tide toward liberty. These cases do more to save Americans from being dominated by bureaucratic overlords than anything else the Court has done in at least half a century. The decisions in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy and Loper Bright v. Raimondo (decided alongside NCLA’s case Relentless v. Department of Commerce) do not just right two wrongs; they deliver a one-two punch for independence. In different ways, each case changes the direction in which our ship of state was headed and steers it back on a course that is far more compatible with individual liberty and self-government than the tyrannical trajectory onto which the Court veered a century ago. Together they establish a legacy for The Chief Justice of the United States as a loyal defender of the structural Constitution and an ardent foe of unlawful administrative power.
A fuller examination of these two opinions will reveal just how rejuvenating they are. As Chief Justice Roberts notes in his Jarkesy opinion, the right to a jury trial was protected in the Constitution (in more than one place) in no small part because the colonists had personal experience with the monarch’s use of jury-less courts under the king’s control to adjudicate their alleged transgressions. So, when Congress started sidelining the federal judiciary and allowing federal agencies to go after alleged rulebreakers in their own tribunals, it had a familiar—if foreboding—feel. That individual rights suffered under this regime was as predictable as it was pernicious.
For the SEC, it was the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 that dramatically increased the agency’s ability to herd regulated parties before biased in-house adjudicators. But whatever the legislative source of mischief, and sometimes there is not one (e.g., some of the adjudications at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs are rooted in nothing more than an executive order), when agencies get to act as prosecutor, judge, and jury, they invariably abuse that combination of powers our Founders were so keen to separate and keep separate. For example, they bring cases that are marginal on the facts, on the law, or both. They pressure parties to settle rather than contest their innocence. They overcharge, they intimidate witnesses, they fail to turn over exculpatory evidence. Perhaps most outrageously—in part because SEC has been working feverishly to hide this grossly unethical conduct—they even have ‘control deficiencies’ whereby the prosecutorial staff downloads computer files from the adjudicative side of the agency. All those pathologies of administrative adjudication—and at least a couple dozen others—become much scarcer, and some nearly vanish, once the right to a jury trial in front of a real Article III court is restored.
Note that a mere ability to appeal to an Article III court of appeals, which has always been possible at least in theory, is not enough. By appeal time, the overwhelming majority of parties have already been forced into settlement—98% at the SEC. For those who do not settle, the administrative record is set. There is no jury at the court of appeals level to do fact-finding. So, only errors of law stand a chance of being corrected. But an ounce of jury-trial prevention on the front end stops a pound of factual problems that back-end appellate review cannot cure.
Critics of the Jarkesy decision complain that forcing agencies to bring enforcement actions in real courts will limit their ability to take wrongdoers to the woodshed. To be sure, it takes more resources to conduct a real trial than an ersatz in-house tribunal, so to the extent resources limit the enforcement actions agencies can bring, they will have to marshal their resources to go after the most deserving targets of enforcement now. But since when did respect for constitutional rights like jury trials or due process become an undesirable impediment to greater government control over Americans’ lives? And what happened to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty? Have administrative statists become so drunk with power or so smitten with statism that they presume every target of administrative enforcement is well chosen (and guilty) and that the efficiency gains from a rush to judgment outweigh the deliberative losses from jury trials?
Some jaundiced journalists have charged that big corporations are behind the campaign to restore jury-trial rights, as though honoring the Bill of Rights somehow provides cause to seek out suspect motives. In truth, George Jarkesy and his courageous counsel have been on a largely lonely campaign to fix multiple constitutional shortcomings with administrative adjudication. His fixation on jury-trial rights is explained by the simple fact that people with their proverbial backs up against the wall are motivated to try long-shot arguments and fight back hard enough to expose the cracks in what others mistook to be a rock-solid façade. Most voices in the appellate bar mocked Jarkesy’s counsel for trying this argument. Even when it succeeded at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, most of the Supreme Court bar remained skeptical at Jarkesy’s chances of winning with this argument on appeal.
Not only did Mr. Jarkesy prevail, but he secured a victory whose implications ripple to the furthest reaches of the administrative shoreline. The Chief Justice’s opinion for the Court holds that the SEC must honor jury-trial rights in fraud cases, a kind of charge that had a familiar common-law counterpart. But the opinion also sweeps broadly enough to encompass at least every federal agency that tries to mete out punitive financial penalties, not just the SEC. The opinion forthrightly observes that the Seventh Amendment extends to all cases except for those that the Constitution excludes, namely cases in admiralty and equity. And it focuses lower courts’ attention on the remedy that the government is seeking in a case. Where financial penalties are dispensed for punitive or deterrence reasons, most often jury trials will be required.
Public-Rights Exception to Jury-Trial Rights Narrowed
Much to the chagrin of the dissenters, the Court’s opinion also questions and ultimately cashiers much of the so-called public rights exception to Article III jurisdiction, which the Court had long used to justify denying jury trial rights pretty much any time Congress chose to entrust enforcement of a new statute to an administrative agency. Back in 1977, the Supreme Court in Atlas Roofing Co., Inc. v. Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission held that the Seventh Amendment does not require a trial by jury in administrative proceedings to enforce civil violations of federal ‘public rights’ statutes. Worse yet, the scope of public rights was said to broadly include “cases in which the government sues in its sovereign capacity to enforce public rights created by statutes within the power of Congress to enact.” That had meant that pretty much every statutory prohibition could be enforced with civil penalties without a jury trial, if Congress so chose.
In tossing aside that flimsy doctrine, The Chief Justice gave notice that the government cannot turn jury-trial rights into options only exercisable at the government’s discretion. Congress does not have the power to take away jury-trial rights. That is, it is not just that agencies cannot do this on their own, they cannot even do it with Congress’s explicit blessing. Indeed, Americans’ right to trial by jury matters most in cases against the government, so the idea that jury-trial rights are limited to torts and contracts and other cases against private parties is wrong. This historically learned and deeply rooted decision seems destined to permanently secure Americans’ jury-trial rights against encroachment by the administrative state.
Practically-speaking that probably means pushing a bunch of cases back into Article III courts where they belong, i.e., not in front of administrative law judges. That might require appointing an additional handful of Article III judges, even though the agencies will not be bringing the same volume of cases as before. If so, that seems a small price for taxpayers to pay in exchange for the restoration of their jury-trial rights as a bulwark against aggressive agency enforcement tactics.
[NB: Chief Justice Roberts did not stop there. Stay tuned for the second half of the analysis, covering the Loper Bright and Relentless cases.]
new video loaded: Former F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller Dies at 81
transcript
transcript
Former F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller Dies at 81
Robert Mueller, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 12 tumultuous years, brought politically explosive indictments as a special counsel examining Russia’s attack on the 2016 presidential election.
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Countless Americans are alive today, and our country is more secure because of the F.B.I.’s outstanding work under the leadership of Bob Mueller.
By McKinnon de Kuyper
March 21, 2026
Travelers wait in line at a TSA security checkpoint at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, on March 20, 2026.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
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Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
It’s spring break season in the U.S. — and travelers are facing long airport lines as security screeners work without pay while the Department of Homeland security is shut down.
Congressional Democrats have declined to fund the agency in an attempt to force reforms of federal immigration enforcement practices.
Wait times at major hubs in Houston and Atlanta reached two hours on Friday, while New Orleans’s Louis Armstrong International Airport advised passengers to arrive at least three hours before their scheduled departures. In Philadelphia, airport officials closed three security checkpoints entirely this week because of short staffing.
On Saturday, President Trump threatened to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to staff airport security lanes if Democrats don’t “immediately” agree to fund DHS. A bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating with the White House over immigration enforcement and ending the shutdown.
“I will move our brilliant and patriotic ICE Agents to the Airports where they will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social. In a follow-up post he said he told ICE to “GET READY” to deploy to airports on Monday.
Why are wait times so long?
Officials say wait times are unpredictable and can fluctuate sharply as airports struggle with Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages.
TSA staffers are considered essential workers, so about 50,000 have been working without pay due to the shutdown that started Feb. 14. Last week, they missed their first full paychecks. The Department of Homeland Security says more than 300 TSA officers have quit. More than half of TSA staff in Houston called out sick and nearly a third called out in Atlanta and New Orleans last week, DHS said.
The staffing shortage comes as travel has also been disrupted by severe weather, and as schools across the country close for spring break.
Some 2.8 million people were projected to travel on U.S. airlines each day in March and April, adding up to a record 171 million passengers, according to the industry group Airlines for America.
What do officials say?
Transportation officials are warning the situation could get worse if the shutdown isn’t resolved. A second missed paycheck would put even more strain on TSA workers, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN on Friday.
“If a deal isn’t cut, you’re going to see what’s happening today look like child’s play,” Duffy said. “Is it still safe as you go through the airport? Yes, but it takes a lot longer because we have less agents working.” He added that some smaller airports may be forced to temporarily close if more staff calls out.
In the U.K., Foreign Office officials are also warning travelers of “travel disruption” caused by “longer than usual queues at some U.S. airports,” and recommended passengers check with their travel provider, airport, or airline for guidance.
On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk weighed in with an offer to personally pay TSA staff.
“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk posted on X early Saturday morning.
U.S. law generally bars government employees from receiving outside compensation for their work.
Even with disruptions, travel demand is still high
On top of long security wait times and weather impacts, travel is being affected by the war in Iran, which is driving up global oil prices.
On Friday, United Airlines said it would cut some flights over the next six months after jet fuel prices doubled in recent weeks. Capacity cuts are likely to send airfares even higher, even as ticket prices are already rising, said Clint Henderson, a spokesperson for the travel website The Points Guy.
Still, he said, none of that seems to be deterring Americans from flying.
“The appetite for travel is insatiable,” he said. “People seem willing to endure a lot of stuff to travel. And I don’t see any signs of that decreasing.”
How can travelers prepare?
Travel experts say it’s not just long wait times that travelers should prepare for — it’s the uncertainty.
“Every day this goes on, it’s getting worse and worse and worse,” Henderson said.
Here are some tips on how to prepare for upcoming air travel:
1. Know before you go
Many airport websites list estimated security wait times. That should be the first place you check to get a sense of how long lines might be, Henderson says. (TSA also estimates wait times on its website and app, but that’s not being regularly updated because of the shutdown, he added.)
“Knowledge is power,” Henderson said. “You should know what’s going on at your local airport.”
He noted there are 20 U.S. airports where security screening is done by private contractors, not the TSA — and they are not experiencing staffing shortages or long waits. Some are smaller regional airports, but the list also includes some larger hubs, including San Francisco International Airport and Kansas City International Airport.
“There’s big, big, big metropolitan areas where it’s not an issue at all,” Henderson said.
2. Budget extra time
If you’re someone who shows up at the airport when your flight starts boarding, think twice, says travel writer Chris Dong.
“I’m the type of traveler who usually arrives pretty last minute,” Dong said, “but I think that that advice would not be sound for the current situation.”
Even if wait times are listed as short, things can change on a dime. Dong recently flew out of John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and found the TSA PreCheck line unexpectedly closed.
“So then everyone that was funneled through the regular line, it was an extra like 20, 30 minutes,” he said. “I was sweating it out because I usually arrive super last-minute. And those levels of uncertainty are just higher now with the shutdown.”
3. Consider biometric screening
Henderson typically recommends signing up for TSA PreCheck or the Global Entry program to move through airport security more quickly — and to opt in to biometric screening. That has to be done in advance, and travelers also have to choose biometric screening in their airline apps.
“Make sure if that’s an option that you’re opted in for that, because that will save you so much agita,” he said.
For those who haven’t signed up in advance, there is a last-minute alternative: the private CLEAR program, which allows people to enroll at the airport. Henderson notes it’s pricey — annual membership costs $209 — but that some credit card companies will refund that fee.
“For me to skip a three-hour line is probably worth the membership fee, especially if you know your credit card will pay you back for it,” he said.
That said, expedited screening lanes are not always faster than regular screening, both Henderson and Dong warned. Always check what all the lanes look like when you arrive at the airport.
4. Make a plan B
If you miss a connection or your flight is canceled, be proactive about rebooking. “Have all the tools available to you in the toolbox in case things go wrong,” Henderson advises.
That includes installing your airline’s app on your smartphone and writing down their customer service number, so you aren’t scrambling to find it.
“And then, you know, obviously have a plan B,” Henderson said. “Know what other airlines fly the route that you want to take in case, you know, you missed your Delta flight and American is offering a flight you can take later that day.”
He says while airlines don’t generally like to rebook passengers on competitors’ flights, it’s worth asking. He also recommends having the information at hand to give to customer service agents, including flight number, airline and departure time.
And if an airline cancels your flight in the U.S., you’re entitled to a refund, according to the Department of Transportation.
A University of Alabama student who was found dead in Barcelona after going missing while vacationing evidently fell into the sea by accident in view of surveillance cameras – and an autopsy revealed injuries on his body that were consistent with having repeatedly struck a breakwater’s rocks.
Such details about James “Jimmy” Gracey surfaced in the Spanish media as a spokesperson for police in Barcelona told the Associated Press that “all signs point” to the 20-year-old’s death as having been inadvertent.
Gracey was last seen outside the Shoko nightclub at about 3am on Tuesday. The native of suburban Chicago raised alarm when he did not return to a short-term rental where he was staying with friends who accompanied him on their spring break to the Catalan region’s capital.
And, in a development that generated international news headlines, his corpse ultimately was recovered Thursday afternoon in 13ft deep waters off a beach near the Shoko club.
Spain’s El País newspaper, citing police sources, reported on Friday that local surveillance cameras captured video of Gracey walking by himself toward a dock and falling into the water “without third-party involvement”.
El Periódico, another outlet, added on Friday that a preliminary autopsy report filed in court in Barcelona “rules out foul play and supports the police hypothesis that [Gracey] accidentally fell into the sea and drowned”. Furthermore, the autopsy report documented “several injuries consistent with hitting the rocks of a breakwater”, according to Barcelona-based El Periódico, which also wrote that toxicology test results were pending.
The outlets’ reports contained details about the two-day search for Gracey. At one point, El País reported, Barcelona police found Gracey’s cellphone in the possession of a thief known to officers. But it was unclear whether Gracey lost the device or if it was stolen from him, and investigators ruled out its having anything to do with the subsequent fall into the sea, according to El País.
Meanwhile, El Periódico reported that police narrowed their search for Gracey after finding his wallet and some clothes. The outlet also reported that Gracey’s parents had traveled to Barcelona, and his body would be released to his family for repatriation and burial after the completion of the toxicology tests.
A statement from Gracey’s family members asked for prayers and privacy as they struggle “to come to terms with this unimaginable loss”.
“Our family is heartbroken,” the statement also said. “Jimmy was a deeply loved son, grandson, brother, nephew, cousin and friend.”
Barcelona draws millions of foreign tourists annually. It is considered generally safe, especially compared with major cities in the US, which has significantly higher rates of deadly gun violence than other high-income nations.
The Mediterranean beaches in Barcelona are within walking distance of its bustling city center and frequently draw young visitors. When he went missing, Gracey had gone out to a stretch of beach lined with restaurants and nightclubs that are popular with both locals and visitors.
Before police confirmed Gracey’s death, his aunt described him in an interview with the AP as “just a great kid, a good Catholic boy” from the US’s midwest.
A statement from the University of Alabama said its community was “heartbroken” upon learning of Gracey’s death.
“Jimmy’s loss is deeply felt across our campus,” the university’s statement said. “Our condolences are with the Gracey family during this devastating time.”
Associated Press contributed reporting
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