The US Supreme Court just handed federal regulators a pair of wins that crypto firms should pay very close attention to. In two separate rulings issued on June 4, the Court upheld the enforcement authority of both the FCC and the SEC, rejecting constitutional challenges that could have kneecapped the agencies’ ability to police markets and penalize bad actors.
Two cases, one message: the agencies can enforce
In FCC v. AT&T, Inc., the Court ruled 8-1 that the FCC’s process for imposing civil penalties does not violate the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. AT&T and Verizon had argued otherwise, and they lost decisively.
The practical result: the FCC can collect penalties exceeding $57 million from AT&T and nearly $47 million from Verizon for violations related to customer data privacy. The broader enforcement actions in that batch totaled nearly $200 million.
The second case, Sripetch v. SEC, was even more lopsided. The Court ruled 9-0 that the SEC can seek disgorgement of profits obtained through unlawful activities without having to prove that specific investors suffered direct financial harm.
