The SEC’s Power to Police Markets Is Under Attack in Court

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has a lot of complicated new issues on its plate, from crypto to the aftermath of the meme-stock explosion. Now add this: A movement to cut back on regulators’ legal authority is making headway in court.

Hedge fund manager George Jarkesy spent almost a decade battling an SEC in-house judge’s ruling against him for allegedly misleading investors in two of his funds. On May 18 two judges with the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit agreed that the SEC violated his constitutional right to a jury trial when it put its case ...