Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC

Summary

Justice Kagan's opinion for eight Justices held that the Exchange Act and FTC Act do not displace federal district courts' jurisdiction over Axon's and Cochran's structural constitutional challenges. All three Thunder Basin factors favor district court jurisdiction: appellate review after agency proceedings cannot remedy the alleged injury of undergoing unconstitutional proceedings, the challenges are collateral to the enforcement merits, and they fall outside agency expertise. The Court did not decide whether the challenged agency structures are constitutional. It reversed the Ninth Circuit, affirmed the Fifth Circuit, and remanded both cases. Justice Thomas, writing alone and joining the Court's opinion fully, questioned whether agency adjudication of core private rights with deferential judicial review is constitutional. Justice Gorsuch, writing alone and concurring in the judgment, would resolve the cases directly under the statutory text rather than the Thunder Basin framework.