Brief Fact Summary. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a regulation permitting itself to adjudicate counterclaims brought by brokers in reparations proceedings. Schor brought suit against his broker, who then filed a counterclaim against him. Schor then challenged the CFTC’s authority to adjudicate the counterclaim as violating Article III of the United States Constitution.
Synopsis of Rule of Law. Article III, Section:1 of the Constitution provides that the “judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” However, Courts must apply the principle that “practical attention to substance rather than doctrinal reliance on formal categories should inform application of Article III.”
Issue. Did CFTC’s assumption of jurisdiction over common law counterclaims violate the Constitution?
Held. No. The limited jurisdiction that CFTC asserts over state law claims as a necessary incident to the adjudication of federal claims willingly submitted by the parties for initial agency adjudication does not contravene separation of powers principles or Article III. The CFTC’s powers departed from the traditional agency model only in respect to its ability to adjudicate counterclaims arising from the same transaction. This did not impermissibly intrude on the providence of the judiciary. Dissent. Article III, Section: I seems to prohibit the vesting of any judicial functions in the Legislative and Executive branches, but the court has recognized three narrow exceptions: territorial courts, courts-martial, and courts that adjudicate certain disputes concerning public rights. The judicial authority of non-Article III federal tribunals should be limited to these few, long-established exceptions. Concurrence. None.
Although this Court will often strain to construe legislation so as to save it against constitutional attack, it must not and will not carry this to the point of perverting the purpose of a statute or judicially rewriting it.
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