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States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_1" }, { "text": "for the Fifth Circuit", "paragraph_id": "para_2" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_3" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_4" }, { "text": "____________", "paragraph_id": "para_5" }, { "text": "Intuit, Incorporated,", "paragraph_id": "para_6" }, { "text": "Petitioner,", "paragraph_id": "para_7" }, { "text": "versus", "paragraph_id": "para_8" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Commission,", "paragraph_id": "para_9" }, { "text": "Respondent.", "paragraph_id": "para_10" }, { "text": "______________________________", "paragraph_id": "para_11" }, { "text": "Petition for Review from the Federal Trade Commission", "paragraph_id": "para_12" }, { "text": "Agency No. 9408", "paragraph_id": "para_13" }, { "text": "______________________________", "paragraph_id": "para_14" }, { "text": "Before Jones, Barksdale, and Ho, Circuit Judges.", "paragraph_id": "para_15" }, { "text": "Edith H. Jones, Circuit Judge:", "paragraph_id": "para_16" }, { "text": "The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is authorized by Section 5", "paragraph_id": "para_17" }, { "text": "of the FTC Act to prosecute “unfair or deceptive acts or practices”", "paragraph_id": "para_18" }, { "text": "involving interstate commerce. 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1). Affirming an", "paragraph_id": "para_19" }, { "text": "administrative law judge (“ALJ”), the FTC imposed a cease-and-desist", "paragraph_id": "para_20" }, { "text": "order on Intuit, Inc., for “deceptive” advertisements that one of its popular", "paragraph_id": "para_21" }, { "text": "TurboTax preparation products is “free” for “simple tax returns.”", "paragraph_id": "para_22" }, { "text": "Following the Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy,1 we hold that", "paragraph_id": "para_23" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_24" }, { "text": "1 603 U.S. 109, 144 S. Ct. 2117 (2024).", "paragraph_id": "para_25" }, { "text": "United States Court of Appeals", "paragraph_id": "para_26" }, { "text": "Fifth Circuit", "paragraph_id": "para_27" }, { "text": "FILED", "paragraph_id": "para_28" }, { "text": "March 20, 2026", "paragraph_id": "para_29" }, { "text": "Lyle W. Cayce", "paragraph_id": "para_30" }, { "text": "Clerk", "paragraph_id": "para_31" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_32" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_33" }, { "text": "2", "paragraph_id": "para_34" }, { "text": "adjudication of a deceptive advertising claim before an administrative law", "paragraph_id": "para_35", "court_paragraph": 2 }, { "text": "judge violated the constitutional separation of powers. Intuit’s petition for", "paragraph_id": "para_36" }, { "text": "review is GRANTED; the FTC’s order is VACATED; and the case is", "paragraph_id": "para_37" }, { "text": "REMANDED to the agency for further proceedings.", "paragraph_id": "para_38" }, { "text": "I. BACKGROUND", "paragraph_id": "para_39" }, { "text": "Petitioner Intuit, Inc. sells “TurboTax,” a popular line of online and", "paragraph_id": "para_40" }, { "text": "desktop tax-preparation products. TurboTax “Free Edition” has been part", "paragraph_id": "para_41" }, { "text": "of the TurboTax range for more than a decade, available to taxpayers for what", "paragraph_id": "para_42" }, { "text": "Intuit refers to as “simple tax returns.” Most American taxpayers do not", "paragraph_id": "para_43" }, { "text": "have “simple tax returns.” Intuit has expanded access to the TurboTax Free", "paragraph_id": "para_44" }, { "text": "Edition over time, but “simple tax returns” has previously excluded", "paragraph_id": "para_45" }, { "text": "taxpayers with mortgage and property deductions, itemized deductions,", "paragraph_id": "para_46" }, { "text": "unemployment income, education expenses, charitable donations above a", "paragraph_id": "para_47" }, { "text": "certain threshold, investment or rental property income, and expenses from", "paragraph_id": "para_48" }, { "text": "self-owned businesses. The TurboTax website is designed so that any", "paragraph_id": "para_49" }, { "text": "individual taxpayer can begin preparing a tax return in TurboTax Free", "paragraph_id": "para_50" }, { "text": "Edition, but those who enter disqualifying information are prompted before", "paragraph_id": "para_51" }, { "text": "filing to upgrade to a paid product.", "paragraph_id": "para_52" }, { "text": "Intuit advertised TurboTax Free Edition across a variety of popular,", "paragraph_id": "para_53" }, { "text": "accessible media. These advertisements typically drew attention to the fact", "paragraph_id": "para_54" }, { "text": "that TurboTax Free Edition does not cost anything, although Intuit usually", "paragraph_id": "para_55" }, { "text": "added disclosures that state the TurboTax Free Edition is limited to", "paragraph_id": "para_56" }, { "text": "taxpayers with “simple tax returns,” “simple U.S. returns,” or similar", "paragraph_id": "para_57" }, { "text": "verbiage.", "paragraph_id": "para_58" }, { "text": "In 2022, FTC issued an administrative complaint alleging that", "paragraph_id": "para_59" }, { "text": "TurboTax Free Edition advertisements deceived consumers into believing", "paragraph_id": "para_60" }, { "text": "that all TurboTax products are free. These allegations were predicated on", "paragraph_id": "para_61" }, { "text": "Section 5 of the FTC Act, which proscribes “unfair or deceptive acts or", "paragraph_id": "para_62" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_63" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_64" }, { "text": "3", "paragraph_id": "para_65" }, { "text": "practices.” 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1).2 The Commission initially filed suit in the", "paragraph_id": "para_66", "court_paragraph": 3 }, { "text": "Northern District of California and moved for a preliminary injunction", "paragraph_id": "para_67" }, { "text": "against Intuit, which was denied. FTC then changed course, abandoned the", "paragraph_id": "para_68" }, { "text": "federal suit, and pursued a cease-and-desist order by means of internal", "paragraph_id": "para_69" }, { "text": "adjudication. An ALJ presided over the adjudication and issued a decision", "paragraph_id": "para_70" }, { "text": "concluding that Intuit’s advertisements were likely to mislead a significant", "paragraph_id": "para_71" }, { "text": "minority of consumers. On appeal by Intuit, three Commissioners affirmed", "paragraph_id": "para_72" }, { "text": "in an opinion largely tracking the ALJ’s decision. The cease-and-desist order", "paragraph_id": "para_73" }, { "text": "is remarkably broad: it prohibits Intuit for the next twenty years from", "paragraph_id": "para_74" }, { "text": "advertising “any goods or services” as free unless specific, extensive, and", "paragraph_id": "para_75" }, { "text": "arguably unworkable requirements are satisfied. The order is not confined to", "paragraph_id": "para_76" }, { "text": "tax-preparation solutions and extends to all products sold by Intuit.3", "paragraph_id": "para_77" }, { "text": "II. DISCUSSION", "paragraph_id": "para_78" }, { "text": "Intuit petitions for review under 15 U.S.C. § 45(c) and raises a variety", "paragraph_id": "para_79" }, { "text": "of arguments.4 The threshold argument that FTC unlawfully adjudicated", "paragraph_id": "para_80" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_81" }, { "text": "2 This case does not consider any unfair competition claims under the FTC Act", "paragraph_id": "para_82" }, { "text": "other than claims for deceptive advertising. 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1) (“Unfair methods of", "paragraph_id": "para_83" }, { "text": "competition in or affecting commerce . . . are hereby declared unlawful.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_84" }, { "text": "3 Intuit’s numerous products include (but are not limited to) several individual tax", "paragraph_id": "para_85" }, { "text": "preparation software programs, professional tax programs, credit score reporting software,", "paragraph_id": "para_86" }, { "text": "and an email marketing program.", "paragraph_id": "para_87" }, { "text": "4 The arguments fall into three categories. First, Intuit contends that the agency", "paragraph_id": "para_88" }, { "text": "proceeding was unlawful because deceptive advertising claims involve “private rights”;", "paragraph_id": "para_89" }, { "text": "removal protections for FTC commissioners violate the Constitution; agency discretion to", "paragraph_id": "para_90" }, { "text": "adjudicate claims internally or in court violates the nondelegation doctrine; the", "paragraph_id": "para_91" }, { "text": "combination of prosecutorial and adjudicative functions in a single government agency", "paragraph_id": "para_92" }, { "text": "violates due process; and due process required then-Chair Lina Kahn to recuse. Second,", "paragraph_id": "para_93" }, { "text": "Intuit assails FTC’s decision for insufficient evidence, applying a stricter deception", "paragraph_id": "para_94" }, { "text": "standard than appropriate, analyzing TurboTax ads in a piecemeal manner, and holding", "paragraph_id": "para_95" }, { "text": "that various TurboTax website disclosures could not cure consumer deception. Third,", "paragraph_id": "para_96" }, { "text": "Intuit contends that the cease-and-desist order is unlawful because it was unnecessary,", "paragraph_id": "para_97" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 3 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_98" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_99" }, { "text": "4", "paragraph_id": "para_100" }, { "text": "“private rights” before an ALJ rather than in an Article III court proves", "paragraph_id": "para_101", "court_paragraph": 4 }, { "text": "dispositive. The Commission rejected that argument, and our review is de", "paragraph_id": "para_102" }, { "text": "novo. See Emp. Sols. Staffing Grp. II, LLC v. Off. of Chief Admin. Hearing", "paragraph_id": "para_103" }, { "text": "Officer, 833 F.3d 480, 484 (5th Cir. 2016).", "paragraph_id": "para_104" }, { "text": "A.", "paragraph_id": "para_105" }, { "text": "Because the Supreme Court’s decision in Jarkesy undertook a careful", "paragraph_id": "para_106" }, { "text": "survey of authorities bearing on the constitutional status of administrative", "paragraph_id": "para_107" }, { "text": "agency adjudication, an abridged account suffices. The Constitution", "paragraph_id": "para_108" }, { "text": "exclusively vests the “judicial Power of the United States . . . in one Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_109" }, { "text": "Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may . . . establish.” U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_110" }, { "text": "Const. Art. III, § 1. Accordingly, Congress may not “confer the", "paragraph_id": "para_111" }, { "text": "Government’s ‘judicial Power’ on entities outside Article III.” Stern v.", "paragraph_id": "para_112" }, { "text": "Marshall, 564 U.S. 462, 484, 131 S. Ct. 2594, 2609 (2011). The Constitution", "paragraph_id": "para_113" }, { "text": "also fixes the scope of the judicial power, as it “shall extend to all Cases, in", "paragraph_id": "para_114" }, { "text": "Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, [and] the Laws of the United", "paragraph_id": "para_115" }, { "text": "States.” U.S. Const. Art. III, § 2, cl. 1. Whether a given claim falls within", "paragraph_id": "para_116" }, { "text": "that scope turns on a longstanding distinction between “public rights” and", "paragraph_id": "para_117" }, { "text": "“private rights.” Exec. Benefits Ins. Agency v. Arkison, 573 U.S. 25, 32, 134", "paragraph_id": "para_118" }, { "text": "S. Ct. 2165, 2171 (2014).", "paragraph_id": "para_119" }, { "text": "1.", "paragraph_id": "para_120" }, { "text": "The Supreme Court has explained that private rights are implicated", "paragraph_id": "para_121" }, { "text": "by “any [claim] which, from its nature, is the subject of a suit at the common", "paragraph_id": "para_122" }, { "text": "law, or in equity, or admiralty.” Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land &", "paragraph_id": "para_123" }, { "text": "Improvement Co., 59 U.S. (18 How.) 272, 284 (1856) (emphases added).", "paragraph_id": "para_124" }, { "text": "Courts often ask whether a claim “is made of the stuff of the traditional", "paragraph_id": "para_125" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_126" }, { "text": "overbroad, vague, and arbitrary and capricious. Intuit concedes that several of its", "paragraph_id": "para_127" }, { "text": "arguments are foreclosed by binding precedent.", "paragraph_id": "para_128" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 4 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_129" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_130" }, { "text": "5", "paragraph_id": "para_131" }, { "text": "actions at common law tried by the courts at Westminster in 1789,” although", "paragraph_id": "para_132", "court_paragraph": 5 }, { "text": "Article III extends beyond strictly “legal” actions. Stern, 564 U.S. at 484,", "paragraph_id": "para_133" }, { "text": "131 S. Ct. at 2609 (internal quotations and citation omitted). Claims that are", "paragraph_id": "para_134" }, { "text": "naturally “the subject of a suit at the common law, or in equity,” implicate", "paragraph_id": "para_135" }, { "text": "private rights and thus fall under federal jurisdiction regardless “whether", "paragraph_id": "para_136" }, { "text": "they originate in a newly fashioned regulatory scheme or possess a long line", "paragraph_id": "para_137" }, { "text": "of common-law forebears.” Granfinanciera, S.A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33,", "paragraph_id": "para_138" }, { "text": "52, 109 S. Ct. 2782, 2795–96 (1989). And “[o]nce . . . a suit ‘is brought within", "paragraph_id": "para_139" }, { "text": "the bounds of federal jurisdiction,’ an Article III court must decide it.”", "paragraph_id": "para_140" }, { "text": "Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 127, 144 S. Ct. at 2131 (quoting Stern, 564 U.S. at 484,", "paragraph_id": "para_141" }, { "text": "131 S. Ct. at 2609). Claims that fall within a “public rights” exception, on", "paragraph_id": "para_142" }, { "text": "the other hand, may be adjudicated by administrative agencies. See Oil States", "paragraph_id": "para_143" }, { "text": "Energy Servs., LLC v. Greene’s Energy Grp., LLC, 584 U.S. 325, 334, 138 S.", "paragraph_id": "para_144" }, { "text": "Ct. 1365, 1372–73 (2018).", "paragraph_id": "para_145" }, { "text": "The concept of public rights has been somewhat nebulous. In an early", "paragraph_id": "para_146" }, { "text": "pivotal case, the Treasury Department declined to proceed through an", "paragraph_id": "para_147" }, { "text": "Article III court to execute a distress warrant on property owned by a corrupt", "paragraph_id": "para_148" }, { "text": "government revenue collector. The Supreme Court supplied what has", "paragraph_id": "para_149" }, { "text": "become the standard definition of public rights. See Murray’s Lessee, 59 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_150" }, { "text": "(18 How.) at 284 (“[T]here are matters, involving public rights, which may", "paragraph_id": "para_151" }, { "text": "be presented in such form that the judicial power is capable of acting on them,", "paragraph_id": "para_152" }, { "text": "and which are susceptible of judicial determination, but which [C]ongress", "paragraph_id": "para_153" }, { "text": "may or may not bring within the cognizance of the courts.”). More recently,", "paragraph_id": "para_154" }, { "text": "the Court explained that the “point” of Murray’s Lessee is nothing", "paragraph_id": "para_155" }, { "text": "extraordinary: “Congress may set the terms of adjudicating a suit when the", "paragraph_id": "para_156" }, { "text": "suit could not otherwise proceed at all.” Stern, 564 U.S. at 489, 131 S. Ct. at", "paragraph_id": "para_157" }, { "text": "2612. Also, the Court has cautioned against expansive readings of Murray’s", "paragraph_id": "para_158" }, { "text": "Lessee by emphasizing that there was an “unbroken tradition” of executing", "paragraph_id": "para_159" }, { "text": "distress warrants without Article III that “long predat[ed] the founding.”", "paragraph_id": "para_160" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 5 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_161" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_162" }, { "text": "6", "paragraph_id": "para_163" }, { "text": "Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 128–29, 144 S. Ct. at 2132; Murray’s Lessee, 59 U.S. (18", "paragraph_id": "para_164", "court_paragraph": 6 }, { "text": "How.) at 281 (“[T]he means provided by the act . . . do not differ in principle", "paragraph_id": "para_165" }, { "text": "from those employed in England from remote antiquity—and in many of the", "paragraph_id": "para_166" }, { "text": "States.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_167" }, { "text": "2.", "paragraph_id": "para_168" }, { "text": "The rising tide of public-rights jurisprudence reached its high-water", "paragraph_id": "para_169" }, { "text": "mark decades ago when the Supreme Court attempted to define “public", "paragraph_id": "para_170" }, { "text": "rights” as encompassing those instances in which Congress creates a “new", "paragraph_id": "para_171" }, { "text": "cause of action, and remedies therefor, unknown to the common law.” Atlas", "paragraph_id": "para_172" }, { "text": "Roofing Co. v. Occupational Safety and Health Rev. Comm’n, 430 U.S. 442,", "paragraph_id": "para_173" }, { "text": "461, 97 S. Ct. 1261, 1272 (1977). The adjudication in that case arose under", "paragraph_id": "para_174" }, { "text": "the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970 (“OSH Act”), an elaborate", "paragraph_id": "para_175" }, { "text": "federal regulatory regime designed to promote safe working conditions. Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_176" }, { "text": "at 444–45, 97 S. Ct. at 1263–64. The OSH Act directed that “[e]ach", "paragraph_id": "para_177" }, { "text": "[covered] employer . . . shall comply with occupational safety and health", "paragraph_id": "para_178" }, { "text": "standards” promulgated pursuant to its provisions. 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(2).", "paragraph_id": "para_179" }, { "text": "Those provisions in turn authorized the Secretary of Labor to promulgate", "paragraph_id": "para_180" }, { "text": "agency rules, and a special commission was charged with prosecuting and", "paragraph_id": "para_181" }, { "text": "adjudicating alleged violations. Atlas Roofing, 430 U.S. at 445–46, 97 S. Ct.", "paragraph_id": "para_182" }, { "text": "at 1264. The commission imposed civil penalties on the Atlas Roofing", "paragraph_id": "para_183" }, { "text": "Company for violating a safety rule “requiring the sides of trenches in", "paragraph_id": "para_184" }, { "text": "unstable or soft material to be shored, . . . sloped, or otherwise supported by", "paragraph_id": "para_185" }, { "text": "means of sufficient strength to protect the employees working within them.”", "paragraph_id": "para_186" }, { "text": "Id. at 447, 97 S. Ct. at 1265 (internal quotations marks omitted). Atlas", "paragraph_id": "para_187" }, { "text": "Roofing argued that the adjudication involved private rights that entitled it to", "paragraph_id": "para_188" }, { "text": "an Article III court. Id. at 448–49, 97 S. Ct. at 1265–66. The Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_189" }, { "text": "unanimously rejected that constitutional argument because, “when", "paragraph_id": "para_190" }, { "text": "Congress creates new statutory ‘public rights,’ it may assign their", "paragraph_id": "para_191" }, { "text": "adjudication to an administrative agency.” Id. at 455, 97 S. Ct. at 1269.", "paragraph_id": "para_192" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 6 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_193" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_194" }, { "text": "7", "paragraph_id": "para_195" }, { "text": "The scope of Atlas Roofing was tested a decade later when the", "paragraph_id": "para_196", "court_paragraph": 7 }, { "text": "Supreme Court considered whether the Constitution permitted a bankruptcy", "paragraph_id": "para_197" }, { "text": "court, an Article I adjunct to Article III courts, to adjudicate a claim for", "paragraph_id": "para_198" }, { "text": "fraudulent conveyance. See Granfinanciera, 492 U.S. at 36, 109 S. Ct. at 2787.", "paragraph_id": "para_199" }, { "text": "Six justices held it did not because “[t]here [was] no dispute that actions to", "paragraph_id": "para_200" }, { "text": "recover . . . fraudulent transfers were often brought at law in late 18th-century", "paragraph_id": "para_201" }, { "text": "England.” Id. at 43, 109 S. Ct. at 2791. The pertinent lesson from", "paragraph_id": "para_202" }, { "text": "Granfinanciera was that, despite uncertainty fostered by Atlas Roofing,", "paragraph_id": "para_203" }, { "text": "Congress cannot relegate actions that were essentially “suits at common", "paragraph_id": "para_204" }, { "text": "law” to proceedings outside of Article III.5 Id. at 56, 109 S. Ct. at 2798.", "paragraph_id": "para_205" }, { "text": "3.", "paragraph_id": "para_206" }, { "text": "In light of this background, the Supreme Court in Jarkesy considered", "paragraph_id": "para_207" }, { "text": "whether the SEC could administratively adjudicate a civil penalty action for", "paragraph_id": "para_208" }, { "text": "securities fraud subject to deferential Article III review. With a few words of", "paragraph_id": "para_209" }, { "text": "caution, the Court warned that the public-rights doctrine “would swallow”", "paragraph_id": "para_210" }, { "text": "the ordinary Article III requirement “[w]ithout . . . close attention to the basis", "paragraph_id": "para_211" }, { "text": "for each asserted application of the doctrine.” Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 131, 144", "paragraph_id": "para_212" }, { "text": "S. Ct. at 2134. The Court concluded that an Article III adjudication was", "paragraph_id": "para_213" }, { "text": "necessary in Jarkesy’s case because the securities-fraud laws “borrow[ed]", "paragraph_id": "para_214" }, { "text": "[their] cause of action from the common law” and were distinguishable from", "paragraph_id": "para_215" }, { "text": "claims that involve public rights. Id. at 136–37, 144 S. Ct. at 1237. Several", "paragraph_id": "para_216" }, { "text": "facts were identified by the Court as particularly important: (1) securities", "paragraph_id": "para_217" }, { "text": "fraud claims “target[ed] the same basic conduct as common law fraud”; (2)", "paragraph_id": "para_218" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_219" }, { "text": "5 Most cases concerning the private/public rights distinction involve claims that", "paragraph_id": "para_220" }, { "text": "might have traditionally sounded at common law rather than equity. Because Article III", "paragraph_id": "para_221" }, { "text": "expressly confers exclusive jurisdiction on federal courts over cases that sound in law and", "paragraph_id": "para_222" }, { "text": "equity, any distinction would only become relevant if Intuit claimed a right to a jury trial", "paragraph_id": "para_223" }, { "text": "under the Seventh Amendment. But it has not done so.", "paragraph_id": "para_224" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 7 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_225" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_226" }, { "text": "8", "paragraph_id": "para_227" }, { "text": "securities fraud laws “employ[ed] the same terms of art” as common law", "paragraph_id": "para_228", "court_paragraph": 8 }, { "text": "fraud; (3) securities fraud actions “operate[d] pursuant to similar legal", "paragraph_id": "para_229" }, { "text": "principles” as common law fraud; and (4) civil penalties are a remedy that was", "paragraph_id": "para_230" }, { "text": "traditionally available in courts of law. Id. at 134, 144 S. Ct. at 2136 (emphasis", "paragraph_id": "para_231" }, { "text": "added).", "paragraph_id": "para_232" }, { "text": "The Court devoted an entire section of its opinion to distinguishing", "paragraph_id": "para_233" }, { "text": "Atlas Roofing from more recent cases. A lengthy paragraph explained the", "paragraph_id": "para_234" }, { "text": "distinctiveness of the OSH Act:", "paragraph_id": "para_235" }, { "text": "Unlike the claims in Granfinanciera and this action, the OSH", "paragraph_id": "para_236" }, { "text": "Act did not borrow its cause of action from the common law. .", "paragraph_id": "para_237" }, { "text": ". . [Its] standards br[ought] no common law soil with them.", "paragraph_id": "para_238" }, { "text": "Rather than reiterate common law terms of art, they instead", "paragraph_id": "para_239" }, { "text": "resembled a detailed building code. . . . The purpose of this", "paragraph_id": "para_240" }, { "text": "regime was not to enable the Federal Government to bring or", "paragraph_id": "para_241" }, { "text": "adjudicate claims that traced their ancestry to the common law.", "paragraph_id": "para_242" }, { "text": ". . . In both concept and execution, the [OSH] Act was self-", "paragraph_id": "para_243" }, { "text": "consciously novel.", "paragraph_id": "para_244" }, { "text": "Id. at 136, 144 S. Ct. at 2137. As the Court summed up, “The novel claims in", "paragraph_id": "para_245" }, { "text": "Atlas Roofing had never been brought in an Article III court.” Id. at 140, 144", "paragraph_id": "para_246" }, { "text": "S. Ct. at 2139. None of this could be said of securities fraud actions", "paragraph_id": "para_247" }, { "text": "prosecuted by SEC, which the Court concluded were not “unknown to the", "paragraph_id": "para_248" }, { "text": "common law.” Id. at 138, 144 S. Ct. at 2138 (citation omitted); see also Basic", "paragraph_id": "para_249" }, { "text": "Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224, 253, 108 S. Ct. 978, 994 (1988) (White, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_250" }, { "text": "concurring in part and dissenting in part) (“[T]he case law developed . . .", "paragraph_id": "para_251" }, { "text": "with respect to [the SEC antifraud provisions] has been based on . . .", "paragraph_id": "para_252" }, { "text": "common-law doctrines of fraud and deceit.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_253" }, { "text": "But the Court did not stop there. The Court cast doubt on whether", "paragraph_id": "para_254" }, { "text": "Atlas Roofing remains good law: “Atlas Roofing represents a departure from", "paragraph_id": "para_255" }, { "text": "our legal traditions . . . . Commentators . . . have often simply ignored the", "paragraph_id": "para_256" }, { "text": "case . . . . Others who have considered it have offered nothing but a variety of", "paragraph_id": "para_257" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 8 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_258" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_259" }, { "text": "9", "paragraph_id": "para_260" }, { "text": "criticisms.” Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 138 & n.4, 144 S. Ct. at 2138 & n.4 (“The", "paragraph_id": "para_261", "court_paragraph": 9 }, { "text": "dissent chants ‘Atlas Roofing’ like a mantra, but no matter how many times it", "paragraph_id": "para_262" }, { "text": "repeats those words, it cannot give Atlas Roofing substance that it lacks.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_263" }, { "text": "The author of Atlas Roofing had already questioned its precedential value", "paragraph_id": "para_264" }, { "text": "years earlier. Granfinanciera, 492 U.S. at 79, 109 S. Ct. at 2810 (White, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_265" }, { "text": "dissenting) (“Perhaps . . . Atlas Roofing is no longer good law after today’s", "paragraph_id": "para_266" }, { "text": "decision.”). Still, the Court stopped short of officially overruling Atlas", "paragraph_id": "para_267" }, { "text": "Roofing. See Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 136, 144. S. Ct. at 2137 (“[W]e need not", "paragraph_id": "para_268" }, { "text": "reach the suggestion . . . that Tull and Granfinanciera effectively overruled", "paragraph_id": "para_269" }, { "text": "Atlas Roofing.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_270" }, { "text": "4.", "paragraph_id": "para_271" }, { "text": "These authorities are the backdrop for the conclusion that deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_272" }, { "text": "advertising claims under the FTC Act are “in their nature” traditional", "paragraph_id": "para_273" }, { "text": "actions at law and equity and thus involve private rights that demand", "paragraph_id": "para_274" }, { "text": "adjudication in an Article III court. We reject FTC’s counterarguments that", "paragraph_id": "para_275" }, { "text": "would include its cease-and-desist proceeding among those identified by the", "paragraph_id": "para_276" }, { "text": "Supreme Court as involving public rights.", "paragraph_id": "para_277" }, { "text": "B.", "paragraph_id": "para_278" }, { "text": "Deceptive advertising claims brought under Section 5 require proof", "paragraph_id": "para_279" }, { "text": "that a material representation “was likely to mislead customers acting", "paragraph_id": "para_280" }, { "text": "reasonably under the circumstances.” FTC v. Tashman, 318 F.3d 1273, 1277", "paragraph_id": "para_281" }, { "text": "(11th Cir. 2003) (citing FTC v. World Travel Vacation Brokers, Inc., 861 F.2d", "paragraph_id": "para_282" }, { "text": "1020, 1029 (7th Cir. 1988)); see also FTC v. Pantron I Corp., 33 F.3d 1088,", "paragraph_id": "para_283" }, { "text": "1095 (9th Cir. 1994) (citing Cliffdale Assocs., 103 F.T.C. 110, 164–65 (1984)).", "paragraph_id": "para_284" }, { "text": "Several causes of action traditionally recognized by courts of common law", "paragraph_id": "para_285" }, { "text": "and equity required a similar showing, including the torts of deceit and fraud.", "paragraph_id": "para_286" }, { "text": "Eighteenth-century English courts held that an action for deceit lies at", "paragraph_id": "para_287" }, { "text": "common law whenever there is a “false affirmation, made by the defendant", "paragraph_id": "para_288" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 9 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_289" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_290" }, { "text": "10", "paragraph_id": "para_291" }, { "text": "with intent to defraud the plaintiff, whereby the plaintiff receives", "paragraph_id": "para_292", "court_paragraph": 10 }, { "text": "damage.” Pasley v. Freeman, 3 T. R. 51, 100 Eng. Rep. 450, 450 (K. B. 1789).", "paragraph_id": "para_293" }, { "text": "In this country, the Restatement (First) of Torts summarized the", "paragraph_id": "para_294" }, { "text": "longstanding claim for deceit in slightly different terms: a company that", "paragraph_id": "para_295" }, { "text": "“fraudulently represent[s] that [its] goods . . . have ingredients or qualities", "paragraph_id": "para_296" }, { "text": "which . . . they do not have” is liable in tort. Restatement (First) of", "paragraph_id": "para_297" }, { "text": "Torts § 761 (1939). American equity law, developed organically since the", "paragraph_id": "para_298" }, { "text": "Founding era, has accounted for tortious deceit in the commercial context of", "paragraph_id": "para_299" }, { "text": "deceptive advertising, where it was often called unfair competition. See, e.g.,", "paragraph_id": "para_300" }, { "text": "Motor Improvements v. A.C. Spark Plug Co., 80 F.2d 385, 386 (6th Cir. 1935)", "paragraph_id": "para_301" }, { "text": "(holding that where misleading ads caused “injury to the plaintiff and fraud", "paragraph_id": "para_302" }, { "text": "upon the public,” “equity should . . . enjoin the sale” of products until the", "paragraph_id": "para_303" }, { "text": "ads are changed); see also City of Carlsbad v. W.T. Thackeray & Co., 57 F. 18,", "paragraph_id": "para_304" }, { "text": "18–20 (N.D. Ill. 1891) (enjoining the defendant company from marketing its", "paragraph_id": "para_305" }, { "text": "salt under a name that might cause a consumer to believe it was made by the", "paragraph_id": "para_306" }, { "text": "plaintiff company). Accordingly, the original FTC Act proscribed deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_307" }, { "text": "advertising as an “[u]nfair method[] of competition” under 15 U.S.C. §", "paragraph_id": "para_308" }, { "text": "45(a)(1).", "paragraph_id": "para_309" }, { "text": "FTC contends that deceit in this context was only actionable if a", "paragraph_id": "para_310" }, { "text": "company palmed off another’s goods as its own. See Am. Washboard Co. v.", "paragraph_id": "para_311" }, { "text": "Saginaw Mfg. Co., 103 F. 281, 284–85 (6th Cir. 1900). But FTC’s restrictive", "paragraph_id": "para_312" }, { "text": "construction is undermined by later decisions. See Motor Improvements, 80", "paragraph_id": "para_313" }, { "text": "F.2d at 386 (“[W]e cannot agree that the palming off by one competitor of", "paragraph_id": "para_314" }, { "text": "his goods as those of another is the sole test of unfair competition. While it", "paragraph_id": "para_315" }, { "text": "is a common method . . . it is not the sole method, certainly not the sole", "paragraph_id": "para_316" }, { "text": "ground, for equitable intervention . . . and we do not view American", "paragraph_id": "para_317" }, { "text": "Washboard . . . as holding that it is.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_318" }, { "text": "The elements of fraud, a tort that was traditionally actionable at", "paragraph_id": "para_319" }, { "text": "common law or equity depending on the circumstances, differ only slightly", "paragraph_id": "para_320" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 10 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_321" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_322" }, { "text": "11", "paragraph_id": "para_323" }, { "text": "from those of deceit. Fraud is actionable when there was a material", "paragraph_id": "para_324", "court_paragraph": 11 }, { "text": "representation, which was false, was known to be false when made or asserted", "paragraph_id": "para_325" }, { "text": "without knowledge of its truth, was intended to be acted upon, was relied", "paragraph_id": "para_326" }, { "text": "upon, and caused injury. See Smith v. Richards, 38 U.S. (13 Pet.) 26, 36 (1839)", "paragraph_id": "para_327" }, { "text": "(“If, indeed, a man . . . make[s] a false representation, whether knowingly or", "paragraph_id": "para_328" }, { "text": "not, by means of which he puts the party bargaining under a mistake upon the", "paragraph_id": "para_329" }, { "text": "terms of the bargain, it is a fraud, and relievable in equity.” (citing 1", "paragraph_id": "para_330" }, { "text": "Maddock’s Chancery 208 (1817))); see also FTC v. Algoma Lumber Co., 291", "paragraph_id": "para_331" }, { "text": "U.S. 67, 81, 54 S. Ct. 315, 321 (1934) (explaining in a case about misleading", "paragraph_id": "para_332" }, { "text": "marketing that, although certain “practice[s] condemned [may] not amount", "paragraph_id": "para_333" }, { "text": "to fraud as understood in courts of law,” “there is a kind of fraud, as courts", "paragraph_id": "para_334" }, { "text": "of equity have long perceived, in clinging to a benefit which is the product of", "paragraph_id": "para_335" }, { "text": "misrepresentation” (emphases added)).", "paragraph_id": "para_336" }, { "text": "Unlike these traditional actions, Section 5 deceptive advertising", "paragraph_id": "para_337" }, { "text": "claims do not require FTC to produce evidence of damage and fraudulent", "paragraph_id": "para_338" }, { "text": "intent. But the Commission still must show that reasonable customers were", "paragraph_id": "para_339" }, { "text": "likely to be misled by a false representation. Here, the Commission alleged", "paragraph_id": "para_340" }, { "text": "that Intuit falsely represented that TurboTax products were free, although", "paragraph_id": "para_341" }, { "text": "they are free only for a narrow group of customers. These allegations", "paragraph_id": "para_342" }, { "text": "correspond with the sine qua non of common law fraud and deceit: a material", "paragraph_id": "para_343" }, { "text": "representation that was false. Hence, claims of fraud, deceit, and deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_344" }, { "text": "advertising share a common core. An equivalent level of overlap between", "paragraph_id": "para_345" }, { "text": "SEC securities fraud claims and common law fraud compelled the Supreme", "paragraph_id": "para_346" }, { "text": "Court’s conclusion that private rights were involved. Compare, e.g., Jarkesy,", "paragraph_id": "para_347" }, { "text": "603 U.S. at 116, 144 S. Ct. at 2125 (“Section 206(b) . . . prohibits investment", "paragraph_id": "para_348" }, { "text": "advisers from making ‘any untrue statement of a material fact’ . . . with", "paragraph_id": "para_349" }, { "text": "respect to investors or prospective investors.” (quoting 17 C.F.R. §", "paragraph_id": "para_350" }, { "text": "275.206(4)–8(a)(1))), with Pauwels v. Deloitte LLP, 83 F.4th 171, 189–90 (2d", "paragraph_id": "para_351" }, { "text": "Cir. 2023) (“To state a claim for fraud under New York law, a plaintiff must", "paragraph_id": "para_352" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 11 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_353" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_354" }, { "text": "12", "paragraph_id": "para_355" }, { "text": "allege (1) a material misrepresentation or omission of fact; (2) which the", "paragraph_id": "para_356", "court_paragraph": 12 }, { "text": "defendant knew to be false; (3) which the defendant made with the intent to", "paragraph_id": "para_357" }, { "text": "defraud; (4) upon which the plaintiff reasonably relied; and (5) which caused", "paragraph_id": "para_358" }, { "text": "injury to the plaintiff.” (quotation omitted)).", "paragraph_id": "para_359" }, { "text": "Striking similarities exist between FTC’s administrative complaint", "paragraph_id": "para_360" }, { "text": "and the Commission’s opinion, on one hand, and classic terms of art", "paragraph_id": "para_361" }, { "text": "associated with fraud and deceit. For example, FTC alleged that Intuit “has", "paragraph_id": "para_362" }, { "text": "engaged in, and is engaging in, deceptive business practices in the advertising,", "paragraph_id": "para_363" }, { "text": "marketing, distribution, and sale of TurboTax,” and “Intuit baits consumers", "paragraph_id": "para_364" }, { "text": "with deceptive ads and then compound[s] the deception with more false", "paragraph_id": "para_365" }, { "text": "claims and buried disclosures.” Intuit, Inc., 2022 WL 1044862, at *1, *5", "paragraph_id": "para_366" }, { "text": "(F.T.C. Mar. 28, 2022) (Comm’n Complaint) (emphases added); see also", "paragraph_id": "para_367" }, { "text": "Intuit, Inc., 2024 WL 382358, at *14 n.12 (F.T.C. Jan. 22, 2024) (Comm’n", "paragraph_id": "para_368" }, { "text": "Opinion) (citing a state-led lawsuit against Intuit for the same conduct that", "paragraph_id": "para_369" }, { "text": "alleged “unfair, fraudulent, and deceptive business acts and practices”", "paragraph_id": "para_370" }, { "text": "(emphasis added)). The Commission concluded in its opinion that Intuit", "paragraph_id": "para_371" }, { "text": "employed unlawful business practices by running a “broad, enduring, and", "paragraph_id": "para_372" }, { "text": "willful” “deceptive ad campaign.” Intuit, Inc., 2024 WL 382358, at *58", "paragraph_id": "para_373" }, { "text": "(emphasis added).6 When rejecting Intuit’s argument that few consumer", "paragraph_id": "para_374" }, { "text": "complaints had been made, the Commission explained that “consumers’", "paragraph_id": "para_375" }, { "text": "willingness to complain about fraud varies widely . . . with mass frauds", "paragraph_id": "para_376" }, { "text": "associated with the lowest complaint rates.” Id. at *35 (emphases added).", "paragraph_id": "para_377" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_378" }, { "text": "6 Although this court has never addressed the issue, a minority of district courts", "paragraph_id": "para_379" }, { "text": "has applied the heightened pleading requirements from Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(b) to Section", "paragraph_id": "para_380" }, { "text": "5 deceptive advertising claims that “soun[d] in fraud.” See FTC v. Lights of Am., Inc., 760", "paragraph_id": "para_381" }, { "text": "F. Supp. 2d 848, 852–55 (C.D. Cal. 2010); FTC v. D-Link Sys., Inc., No. 3:17-CV-00039-", "paragraph_id": "para_382" }, { "text": "JD, 2017 WL 4150873, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2017).", "paragraph_id": "para_383" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 12 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_384" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_385" }, { "text": "13", "paragraph_id": "para_386" }, { "text": "In Jarkesy, the Court also relied on similarities between SEC civil", "paragraph_id": "para_387", "court_paragraph": 13 }, { "text": "penalties and “money damages,” “the prototypical common law remedy.”", "paragraph_id": "para_388" }, { "text": "603 U.S. at 123, 144 S. Ct. at 2129. Here, too, the agency’s remedy displays", "paragraph_id": "para_389" }, { "text": "the similarities between cease-and-desist orders and equitable remedies.", "paragraph_id": "para_390" }, { "text": "Courts have compared FTC Section 5 cease-and-desist orders to the", "paragraph_id": "para_391" }, { "text": "traditional remedies that were available in courts of equity. See, e.g., Golden", "paragraph_id": "para_392" }, { "text": "State Bottling Co. v. NLRB, 414 U.S. 168, 178, 94 S. Ct. 414, 422 (1973)", "paragraph_id": "para_393" }, { "text": "(“Regal Knitwear treated a Board cease-and-desist order as ‘somewhat", "paragraph_id": "para_394" }, { "text": "analogous’ to . . . an injunction.” (italics added) (quoting Regal Knitwear Co.", "paragraph_id": "para_395" }, { "text": "v. NLRB, 324 U.S. 9, 14, 65 S. Ct. 478, 481 (1945))); see also NLRB v. Express", "paragraph_id": "para_396" }, { "text": "Pub. Co., 312 U.S. 426, 433, 61 S. Ct. 693, 698 (1941) (noting that a cease-", "paragraph_id": "para_397" }, { "text": "and-desist order, “like the injunction order of a court, [must] state with", "paragraph_id": "para_398" }, { "text": "reasonable specificity the acts which the respondent is to do or refrain from", "paragraph_id": "para_399" }, { "text": "doing”); Globe Cotton Mills v. NLRB, 103 F.2d 91, 93 (5th Cir. 1939)", "paragraph_id": "para_400" }, { "text": "(explaining that a cease-and-desist order is “analogous to an injunction”);", "paragraph_id": "para_401" }, { "text": "Amy Marshak, The Federal Trade Commission on the Frontier: Suggestions for", "paragraph_id": "para_402" }, { "text": "the Use of Section 5, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1121, 1128 (2011) (“The", "paragraph_id": "para_403" }, { "text": "Commission’s primary tool is a cease-and-desist order, which is largely", "paragraph_id": "para_404" }, { "text": "equivalent to an injunction . . . .” (citations omitted)).", "paragraph_id": "para_405" }, { "text": "Despite the demonstrated similarities between Section 5 deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_406" }, { "text": "advertising claims and common-law fraud and deceit, FTC contends that", "paragraph_id": "para_407" }, { "text": "there is no meaningful connection. On the contrary, courts observed in the", "paragraph_id": "para_408" }, { "text": "years immediately following the FTC Act’s passage in 1914 that its “unfair", "paragraph_id": "para_409" }, { "text": "methods of competition” standard was derived from the common law. The", "paragraph_id": "para_410" }, { "text": "Seventh Circuit was unequivocal: “The [C]ommissioners . . . are to exercise", "paragraph_id": "para_411" }, { "text": "their common sense, as informed by their knowledge of the . . . common", "paragraph_id": "para_412" }, { "text": "law . . . . The trader is entitled to his day in court, and there the same", "paragraph_id": "para_413" }, { "text": "principles and tests that have been applied under the common law . . . are", "paragraph_id": "para_414" }, { "text": "expected by Congress to control.” Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. FTC, 258 F. 307,", "paragraph_id": "para_415" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 13 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_416" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_417" }, { "text": "14", "paragraph_id": "para_418" }, { "text": "311 (7th Cir. 1919). Initially, the Supreme Court concurred, observing that", "paragraph_id": "para_419", "court_paragraph": 14 }, { "text": "the unfair-methods-of-competition standard permitted the Commission to", "paragraph_id": "para_420" }, { "text": "address traditional wrongs that had been previously identified by the", "paragraph_id": "para_421" }, { "text": "judiciary. See FTC v. Gratz, 253 U.S. 421, 427, 40 S. Ct. 572, 575 (1920)", "paragraph_id": "para_422" }, { "text": "(“The words ‘unfair method of competition’ . . . are clearly inapplicable to", "paragraph_id": "para_423" }, { "text": "practices never heretofore regarded as opposed to good morals because", "paragraph_id": "para_424" }, { "text": "characterized by deception, bad faith, fraud, or oppression . . . .”). And", "paragraph_id": "para_425" }, { "text": "during this era of its FTC Act jurisprudence, the Court held that deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_426" }, { "text": "advertising was a traditional wrong that the Commission could address. See", "paragraph_id": "para_427" }, { "text": "FTC v. Winsted Hosiery Co., 258 U.S. 483, 494, 42 S. Ct. 384, 386 (1922)", "paragraph_id": "para_428" }, { "text": "(Brandeis, J.) (“That a person is a wrongdoer who so furnishes another with", "paragraph_id": "para_429" }, { "text": "the means of consummating a fraud has long been a part of the law of unfair", "paragraph_id": "para_430" }, { "text": "competition.” (emphasis added)).7 Only after identifying deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_431" }, { "text": "advertising as a traditional wrong did the Court expand its understanding of", "paragraph_id": "para_432" }, { "text": "the FTC Act and hold “[n]either the language nor the history of the act", "paragraph_id": "para_433" }, { "text": "suggests that Congress intended to confine the forbidden methods to fixed", "paragraph_id": "para_434" }, { "text": "and unyielding categories . . . . The act undoubtedly was aimed at all the", "paragraph_id": "para_435" }, { "text": "familiar methods of law violation . . . . But . . . it also had a broader", "paragraph_id": "para_436" }, { "text": "purpose . . . .” FTC v. R.F. Keppel & Bro., 291 U.S. 304, 310, 54 S. Ct. 423,", "paragraph_id": "para_437" }, { "text": "425 (1934).", "paragraph_id": "para_438" }, { "text": "_____________________", "paragraph_id": "para_439" }, { "text": "7 It makes no difference that the FTC bases its deceptive advertising claims in this", "paragraph_id": "para_440" }, { "text": "case on a separate phrase that Congress later added to the FTC Act for “unfair or", "paragraph_id": "para_441" }, { "text": "deceptive acts or practices.” 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(1). The Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938, which", "paragraph_id": "para_442" }, { "text": "codified this addition, did nothing to sever the FTC Act from its well-recognized common", "paragraph_id": "para_443" }, { "text": "law roots; it merely expanded FTC authority by eliminating a requirement under the", "paragraph_id": "para_444" }, { "text": "“unfair methods of competition” standard that the FTC prove harm to competition. See", "paragraph_id": "para_445" }, { "text": "Exposition Press, Inc. v. FTC, 295 F.2d 869, 876 (2d Cir. 1961) (Friendly, J., dissenting)", "paragraph_id": "para_446" }, { "text": "(“[T]he 1938 amendment, designed to eliminate the need of proving a potential adverse", "paragraph_id": "para_447" }, { "text": "effect on competition, did not eliminate the need of establishing the potentiality of the kind", "paragraph_id": "para_448" }, { "text": "of adverse effect of which the law customarily takes note.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_449" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 14 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_450" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_451" }, { "text": "15", "paragraph_id": "para_452" }, { "text": "FTC attempts to distinguish its claims in this case from various", "paragraph_id": "para_453", "court_paragraph": 15 }, { "text": "traditional actions, including those already discussed. It contends, for", "paragraph_id": "para_454" }, { "text": "example, that common law remedies for deceptive advertising required proof", "paragraph_id": "para_455" }, { "text": "that sales “would have gone to the plaintiff rather than to other competitors", "paragraph_id": "para_456" }, { "text": "in the market.” Mosler Safe Co. v. Ely-Norris Safe Co., 273 U.S. 132, 134, 47", "paragraph_id": "para_457" }, { "text": "S. Ct. 314, 314 (1927). Further, common-law deceit often proved incapable", "paragraph_id": "para_458" }, { "text": "of affording plaintiffs relief because merchants’ opinions were protected even", "paragraph_id": "para_459" }, { "text": "if they misrepresented a product; the principle of caveat emptor was", "paragraph_id": "para_460" }, { "text": "detrimental to consumers; and privity of contract was required. The", "paragraph_id": "para_461" }, { "text": "Commission stresses that none of these obstacles stand in the way of", "paragraph_id": "para_462" }, { "text": "deceptive advertising claims brought under Section 5.", "paragraph_id": "para_463" }, { "text": "The technical distinctions that FTC cites fail to disprove that private", "paragraph_id": "para_464" }, { "text": "rights are at stake. Critically, the Court in Jarkesy identified similar", "paragraph_id": "para_465" }, { "text": "distinctions between federal securities fraud and common law fraud. 603", "paragraph_id": "para_466" }, { "text": "U.S. at 126, 144 S. Ct. at 2131 (“[F]ederal securities fraud and common law", "paragraph_id": "para_467" }, { "text": "fraud are [not] identical. In some respects, federal securities fraud is", "paragraph_id": "para_468" }, { "text": "narrower . . . . In other respects, federal securities fraud is broader.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_469" }, { "text": "Specifically, the Court acknowledged that SEC enjoyed a more lenient", "paragraph_id": "para_470" }, { "text": "burden of proof and could pursue civil penalties without proving harm. Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_471" }, { "text": "Yet the Court held that the “relationship” between securities fraud actions", "paragraph_id": "para_472" }, { "text": "and common law fraud was “close,” “confirm[ing]” that an SEC action is", "paragraph_id": "para_473" }, { "text": "“legal in nature.” Id. (citation omitted). That is no less true here. There is", "paragraph_id": "para_474" }, { "text": "a significant difference between circumstances in which relief has been", "paragraph_id": "para_475" }, { "text": "traditionally limited, or otherwise difficult to obtain, and those in which a", "paragraph_id": "para_476" }, { "text": "claim is wholly unavailable, unrecognized by the common law, or unmoored", "paragraph_id": "para_477" }, { "text": "from any kind of traditional action. Mere obstacles to relief do not compel", "paragraph_id": "para_478" }, { "text": "the conclusion that there was no actionable wrong, and eliminating obstacles", "paragraph_id": "para_479" }, { "text": "to relief does not make an actionable wrong no longer “traditional” in its", "paragraph_id": "para_480" }, { "text": "nature. See also AT&T, Inc. v. FCC, 149 F.4th 491, 499 (5th Cir. 2025)", "paragraph_id": "para_481" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 15 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_482" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_483" }, { "text": "16", "paragraph_id": "para_484" }, { "text": "(“However ‘technical’ section 222 may be, its substance is closely analogous", "paragraph_id": "para_485", "court_paragraph": 16 }, { "text": "to a negligence action . . . . [T]he statutory action need not be ‘identical’ to a", "paragraph_id": "para_486" }, { "text": "common law analogue.”), cert. granted sub nom., FCC v. AT&T, Inc., No. 25-", "paragraph_id": "para_487" }, { "text": "406, 2026 WL 73092 (Jan. 9, 2026).", "paragraph_id": "para_488" }, { "text": "FTC avoids the conclusion that private rights are involved by", "paragraph_id": "para_489" }, { "text": "comparing its Section 5 deception standard to the workplace-safety standards", "paragraph_id": "para_490" }, { "text": "in Atlas Roofing, which the Court held implicated public rights. But a blanket", "paragraph_id": "para_491" }, { "text": "prohibition on “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” does not remotely", "paragraph_id": "para_492" }, { "text": "“resemble[] a detailed building code” like the workplace safety standards", "paragraph_id": "para_493" }, { "text": "promulgated under the OSH Act. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 137, 144 S. Ct. at 2137.", "paragraph_id": "para_494" }, { "text": "Moreover, the Court emphasized that the “novel claims in Atlas Roofing had", "paragraph_id": "para_495" }, { "text": "never been brought in an Article III court.” Id. at 140, 144 S. Ct. at 2139.", "paragraph_id": "para_496" }, { "text": "Not so here. Since the 1970s, the FTC Act has unambiguously authorized", "paragraph_id": "para_497" }, { "text": "the Commission to prosecute Section 5 deceptive advertising claims in", "paragraph_id": "para_498" }, { "text": "federal court. 15 U.S.C. § 53(b); see AMG Cap. Mgmt., LLC v. FTC, 593 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_499" }, { "text": "67, 73–74, 141 S. Ct. 1341, 1346–47 (2021) (“Beginning in the late 1970s, the", "paragraph_id": "para_500" }, { "text": "Commission began to use . . . the words ‘permanent injunction[]’ to obtain", "paragraph_id": "para_501" }, { "text": "court orders for redress of various kinds . . . without prior use of the", "paragraph_id": "para_502" }, { "text": "administrative proceedings in § 5 . . . . [T]he Commission presently uses", "paragraph_id": "para_503" }, { "text": "§ 13(b) . . . with great frequency.” (citations omitted)). And in Jarkesy, the", "paragraph_id": "para_504" }, { "text": "Court noted, “Congress had authorized the SEC to bring [fraud] actions in", "paragraph_id": "para_505" }, { "text": "Article III courts and still authorizes the SEC to do so today.” 603 U.S. at", "paragraph_id": "para_506" }, { "text": "140, 144 S. Ct. at 2139 (citation omitted).", "paragraph_id": "para_507" }, { "text": "In sum, there is overwhelming evidence that Section 5 of the FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_508" }, { "text": "Act did not create a new duty for merchants to refrain from deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_509" }, { "text": "advertising. That duty long predated the FTC Act and could be enforced by", "paragraph_id": "para_510" }, { "text": "private parties in actions at common law or equity for fraud, deceit, or unfair", "paragraph_id": "para_511" }, { "text": "competition. The Commission contends that the FTC Act “expunged”", "paragraph_id": "para_512" }, { "text": "“old soil,” but this ipse dixit cannot overcome the weight of contrary", "paragraph_id": "para_513" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 16 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_514" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_515" }, { "text": "17", "paragraph_id": "para_516" }, { "text": "evidence. Section 5 may well constitute a more effective tool than the common", "paragraph_id": "para_517", "court_paragraph": 17 }, { "text": "law for combatting deceptive advertising. Ultimately, that is beside the point.", "paragraph_id": "para_518" }, { "text": "Congress can modify the common law and deal the public a better hand by", "paragraph_id": "para_519" }, { "text": "expanding remedies. See Pan Am. World Airways, Inc. v. United States, 371", "paragraph_id": "para_520" }, { "text": "U.S. 296, 306, 83 S. Ct. 476, 483 (1963) (explaining that “unfair practices”", "paragraph_id": "para_521" }, { "text": "is a “broader concept than the common-law idea of unfair competition”", "paragraph_id": "para_522" }, { "text": "(citation omitted)). But expanding remedies does not allow Congress to", "paragraph_id": "para_523" }, { "text": "relegate claims of common law pedigree to adjudication by non-Article III", "paragraph_id": "para_524" }, { "text": "bureaucrats. FTC’s action here (1) targets the same conduct as traditional", "paragraph_id": "para_525" }, { "text": "actions; (2) operates pursuant to similar principles; and (3) invokes", "paragraph_id": "para_526" }, { "text": "recognized terms of art. The Commission does not (and could not) contend", "paragraph_id": "para_527" }, { "text": "that this is a matter in which “the political branches had traditionally held", "paragraph_id": "para_528" }, { "text": "exclusive power.” Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 130, 144 S. Ct. at 2133 (citing Ex parte", "paragraph_id": "para_529" }, { "text": "Bakelite Corp., 279 U.S. 438, 458, 460–61, 49 S. Ct. 411, 416–17 (1929)). The", "paragraph_id": "para_530" }, { "text": "close relationship between Section 5 and traditional actions proves that", "paragraph_id": "para_531" }, { "text": "private rights are at stake.", "paragraph_id": "para_532" }, { "text": "C.", "paragraph_id": "para_533" }, { "text": "FTC and amici advance a litany of other arguments in hopes of", "paragraph_id": "para_534" }, { "text": "circumventing Jarkesy and fortifying the claim that it adjudicated public", "paragraph_id": "para_535" }, { "text": "rights. We take them in turn.", "paragraph_id": "para_536" }, { "text": "1.", "paragraph_id": "para_537" }, { "text": "FTC argues that, because this proceeding involves public rights,", "paragraph_id": "para_538" }, { "text": "internal agency adjudication is fine. But “since Murray’s Lessee,” the", "paragraph_id": "para_539" }, { "text": "Supreme Court has “typically evaluated the legal basis for the assertion of", "paragraph_id": "para_540" }, { "text": "the doctrine with care.” Id. at 131, 144 S. Ct. at 2133–34. “The public rights", "paragraph_id": "para_541" }, { "text": "exception is, after all, an exception.” Id., 144 S. Ct. at 2134 (emphasis in", "paragraph_id": "para_542" }, { "text": "original). We exercise similar caution here. The Commission posits that", "paragraph_id": "para_543" }, { "text": "public rights are at issue because Section 5 “permits the government to", "paragraph_id": "para_544" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 17 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_545" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_546" }, { "text": "18", "paragraph_id": "para_547" }, { "text": "pursue equitable remedies on the public’s behalf.” The Court, however,", "paragraph_id": "para_548", "court_paragraph": 18 }, { "text": "repudiated the same circular definition of public rights in Jarkesy. Id. at 139,", "paragraph_id": "para_549" }, { "text": "144 S. Ct. at 2138–39 (“Even as Atlas Roofing invoked the public rights", "paragraph_id": "para_550" }, { "text": "exception, the definition it offered . . . was circular. The exception applied", "paragraph_id": "para_551" }, { "text": ". . . in cases in which . . . the Government sues in its sovereign capacity to", "paragraph_id": "para_552" }, { "text": "enforce public rights created by statutes.” (quotations omitted)). The", "paragraph_id": "para_553" }, { "text": "Constitution does not imply a “public interest” exception to Article III", "paragraph_id": "para_554" }, { "text": "“judicial Power” for a legal claim that otherwise “trace[s] [its] ancestry to", "paragraph_id": "para_555" }, { "text": "[actions recognized at] the common law.” Id. at 137, 144 S. Ct. at 2137.", "paragraph_id": "para_556" }, { "text": "The Commission relies on FTC v. Klesner, 280 U.S. 19, 25–27, 50", "paragraph_id": "para_557" }, { "text": "S. Ct. 1, 3 (1929), an enforcement action dismissed because FTC failed to", "paragraph_id": "para_558" }, { "text": "explain how the action was in the public interest. The Court briefly", "paragraph_id": "para_559" }, { "text": "contrasted actions “in the public interest” with those brought by “private", "paragraph_id": "para_560" }, { "text": "traders to enjoin unfair competition,” where invasion of a “private right”", "paragraph_id": "para_561" }, { "text": "must be shown “because otherwise the plaintiff has not suffered an injury.”", "paragraph_id": "para_562" }, { "text": "Id. at 27, 50 S. Ct. at 3. But the Court did not discuss Article III limits, nor", "paragraph_id": "para_563" }, { "text": "did it suggest that FTC proceedings could never implicate private rights.", "paragraph_id": "para_564" }, { "text": "Nothing in the Court’s more recent Article III jurisprudence indicates that", "paragraph_id": "para_565" }, { "text": "private rights hinge solely on whether an individual suffered harm. In fact,", "paragraph_id": "para_566" }, { "text": "Jarkesy held that SEC’s action involved private rights even though courts", "paragraph_id": "para_567" }, { "text": "had “not typically interpreted federal securities fraud to require a showing of", "paragraph_id": "para_568" }, { "text": "harm to be actionable by the SEC.” 603 U.S. at 126, 144 S. Ct. at 2131.", "paragraph_id": "para_569" }, { "text": "Klesner is not as broad as FTC contends; the Court merely explained that", "paragraph_id": "para_570" }, { "text": "FTC actions are not conditioned on there being a private right at stake, and it", "paragraph_id": "para_571" }, { "text": "acknowledged that, even in private actions, “proof that the public is deceived", "paragraph_id": "para_572" }, { "text": "is an essential element of [unfair competition].” 280 U.S. at 27, 50 S. Ct. at", "paragraph_id": "para_573" }, { "text": "3. The instant proceeding involves private rights under the Court’s caselaw", "paragraph_id": "para_574" }, { "text": "because deceptive advertising claims relate to traditional actions, even", "paragraph_id": "para_575" }, { "text": "though they vindicate the public interest.", "paragraph_id": "para_576" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 18 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_577" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_578" }, { "text": "19", "paragraph_id": "para_579" }, { "text": "FTC and amici invoke cases that they characterize as involving public", "paragraph_id": "para_580", "court_paragraph": 19 }, { "text": "rights or otherwise excusing the Article III tribunal. But none of the cases", "paragraph_id": "para_581" }, { "text": "concern, or are even tangentially related to, deceptive advertising actions. In", "paragraph_id": "para_582" }, { "text": "Union Bridge Co. v. United States, 204 U.S. 364, 27 S. Ct. 367 (1907), for", "paragraph_id": "para_583" }, { "text": "example, the Court affirmed the Secretary of War’s determination to", "paragraph_id": "para_584" }, { "text": "eliminate an unreasonable obstruction to the free navigation of the Allegheny", "paragraph_id": "para_585" }, { "text": "River. Regulating the flow of commerce on navigable rivers is closely", "paragraph_id": "para_586" }, { "text": "analogous to traditional public rights recognized by Jarkesy. Similarly, Block", "paragraph_id": "para_587" }, { "text": "v. Hirsh, 256 U.S. 135, 41 S. Ct. 458 (1921), upheld a Washington, D.C., rent", "paragraph_id": "para_588" }, { "text": "control law administered by a government agency, which dated to the", "paragraph_id": "para_589" }, { "text": "exigencies of World War I. The case turned on interference with property", "paragraph_id": "para_590" }, { "text": "rights, not on the divestiture of Article III federal courts, and it stands in", "paragraph_id": "para_591" }, { "text": "tension with more recent Court precedents. See Granfinanciera, 492 U.S. at", "paragraph_id": "para_592" }, { "text": "71 n.1, 109 S. Ct. at 2806 n.1 (White, J., dissenting) (suggesting that the", "paragraph_id": "para_593" }, { "text": "Court’s opinion “c[ould] be read as overruling or severely limiting the", "paragraph_id": "para_594" }, { "text": "relevant portions” of several cases, including Block). In Crowell v. Benson,", "paragraph_id": "para_595" }, { "text": "285 U.S. 22, 52 S. Ct. 285 (1932), the Court approved administrative", "paragraph_id": "para_596" }, { "text": "adjudication of disputes under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’", "paragraph_id": "para_597" }, { "text": "Compensation Act. Id. at 36, 52 S. Ct. at 286–87. In the course of explaining", "paragraph_id": "para_598" }, { "text": "its conclusion, the Court cited one FTC case in a footnote as a “[f]amiliar", "paragraph_id": "para_599" }, { "text": "illustration[]” of an administrative agency’s adjudicating public rights. Id. at", "paragraph_id": "para_600" }, { "text": "50–51 & 51 n.13, 52 S. Ct. at 292 & n.13 (citing Int’l Shoe Co. v. FTC, 280 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_601" }, { "text": "291, 50 S. Ct. 89 (1930)). The International Shoe case, however, concerned", "paragraph_id": "para_602" }, { "text": "antitrust issues, not the scope of non-Article III adjudication. As Justice", "paragraph_id": "para_603" }, { "text": "Gorsuch pointed out, “Crowell . . . fell within federal courts’ admiralty", "paragraph_id": "para_604" }, { "text": "jurisdiction, and tribunals sitting in admiralty in England and America alike", "paragraph_id": "para_605" }, { "text": "had long heard certain matters falling within the public rights exception.”", "paragraph_id": "para_606" }, { "text": "Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 156, 144 S. Ct. at 2148 (Gorsuch, J., concurring) (citation", "paragraph_id": "para_607" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 19 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_608" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_609" }, { "text": "20", "paragraph_id": "para_610" }, { "text": "omitted). Crowell thus says very little to support FTC’s administrative", "paragraph_id": "para_611", "court_paragraph": 20 }, { "text": "adjudication proceeding.", "paragraph_id": "para_612" }, { "text": "Contrary to FTC’s position, the Supreme Court’s more recent", "paragraph_id": "para_613" }, { "text": "precedents also fail to support its use of in-house ALJs. In Thomas v. Union", "paragraph_id": "para_614" }, { "text": "Carbide Agric. Prods. Co., 473 U.S. 568, 105 S. Ct. 3325 (1985), the Court", "paragraph_id": "para_615" }, { "text": "upheld binding arbitration to allocate compensation among prospective", "paragraph_id": "para_616" }, { "text": "licensees in connection with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and", "paragraph_id": "para_617" }, { "text": "Rodenticide Act. Id. at 571–74, 105 S. Ct. at 3327–30. Consent was key to", "paragraph_id": "para_618" }, { "text": "the Court’s decision. See id. at 589, 105 S. Ct. at 3337 (“Congress has the", "paragraph_id": "para_619" }, { "text": "power . . . to authorize an agency administering a complex regulatory scheme", "paragraph_id": "para_620" }, { "text": "to allocate costs and benefits among voluntary participants in the program", "paragraph_id": "para_621" }, { "text": "without providing an Article III adjudication. It also has the power to", "paragraph_id": "para_622" }, { "text": "condition issuance of registrations or licenses on compliance with agency", "paragraph_id": "para_623" }, { "text": "procedures.” (emphasis added)); see also Wellness Int’l Network, Ltd. v.", "paragraph_id": "para_624" }, { "text": "Sharif, 575 U.S. 665, 674, 135 S. Ct. 1932, 1942 (2015) (“[D]uring the early", "paragraph_id": "para_625" }, { "text": "years of the Republic, federal courts, with the consent of the litigants, regularly", "paragraph_id": "para_626" }, { "text": "referred adjudication of entire disputes to non-Article III referees, masters,", "paragraph_id": "para_627" }, { "text": "or arbitrators . . . .” (emphasis added) (quotation omitted)). Consent is", "paragraph_id": "para_628" }, { "text": "lacking here.", "paragraph_id": "para_629" }, { "text": "FTC fares no better with respect to Commodity Futures Trading", "paragraph_id": "para_630" }, { "text": "Comm’n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 106 S. Ct. 3245 (1986), where the Court", "paragraph_id": "para_631" }, { "text": "upheld the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (“CFTC”)", "paragraph_id": "para_632" }, { "text": "adjudication of a common law counterclaim in a CFTC administrative-", "paragraph_id": "para_633" }, { "text": "reparations proceeding. For several reasons, the Court concluded that Schor", "paragraph_id": "para_634" }, { "text": "waived any right he may have possessed to try the counterclaim before an", "paragraph_id": "para_635" }, { "text": "Article III court. Id. at 849, 106 S. Ct. at 3256; see also id., 106 S. Ct. at 3255–", "paragraph_id": "para_636" }, { "text": "56 (“[T]he relevance of concepts of waiver . . . is demonstrated", "paragraph_id": "para_637" }, { "text": "by . . . Northern Pipeline, in which the absence of consent to an initial", "paragraph_id": "para_638" }, { "text": "adjudication . . . was relied on as a significant factor in determining that", "paragraph_id": "para_639" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 20 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_640" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_641" }, { "text": "21", "paragraph_id": "para_642" }, { "text": "Article III forbade such adjudication.” (citations omitted)); see also Wellness", "paragraph_id": "para_643", "court_paragraph": 21 }, { "text": "Int’l Network, 575 U.S. at 676, 135 S. Ct. at 1943 (“Leaning heavily on the", "paragraph_id": "para_644" }, { "text": "importance of Schor’s consent, the Court found no [Article III] structural", "paragraph_id": "para_645" }, { "text": "concern . . . .”). Schor is inapplicable because Intuit did not file claims before", "paragraph_id": "para_646" }, { "text": "the Commission, and Intuit has consistently maintained its right to an Article", "paragraph_id": "para_647" }, { "text": "III adjudication.", "paragraph_id": "para_648" }, { "text": "The remaining cases that FTC cites for its broad conception of public", "paragraph_id": "para_649" }, { "text": "rights merit little discussion. The Court’s statement that the FTC does not", "paragraph_id": "para_650" }, { "text": "“vindicate private rights,” but is concerned with “the protection of the", "paragraph_id": "para_651" }, { "text": "public interest,” had to do with the Commission’s power to authorize a", "paragraph_id": "para_652" }, { "text": "name-registration proceeding, not with its ability to adjudicate in lieu of", "paragraph_id": "para_653" }, { "text": "Article III courts. See Am. Airlines v. N. Am. Airlines, 351 U.S. 79, 80–81, 83,", "paragraph_id": "para_654" }, { "text": "85, 76 S. Ct. 600, 602–05, (1956). The decision in Akzo N.V. v. Int’l Trade", "paragraph_id": "para_655" }, { "text": "Comm’n, 808 F.2d 1471, 1488 (Fed. Cir. 1986), involved plenary", "paragraph_id": "para_656" }, { "text": "congressional power over commerce with foreign nations. Other cases", "paragraph_id": "para_657" }, { "text": "implicated well-known public-rights exceptions to Article III. See Oil States", "paragraph_id": "para_658" }, { "text": "Energy Servs., LLC, 584 U.S. at 334–37, 138 S. Ct. at 1373–75 (inter partes", "paragraph_id": "para_659" }, { "text": "patent review); Marine Shale Processors, Inc. v. EPA, 81 F.3d 1371, 1376 (5th", "paragraph_id": "para_660" }, { "text": "Cir. 1996) (adjudication of government permits); see also AT&T, Inc., 149", "paragraph_id": "para_661" }, { "text": "F.4th at 500 (listing traditional public-rights cases identified in Jarkesy such", "paragraph_id": "para_662" }, { "text": "as “revenue collection, foreign commerce, immigration, tariffs, tribal", "paragraph_id": "para_663" }, { "text": "relations, public lands, public benefits, and patents”).", "paragraph_id": "para_664" }, { "text": "2.", "paragraph_id": "para_665" }, { "text": "In a post-argument letter, FTC cites a handful of decisions from other", "paragraph_id": "para_666" }, { "text": "circuits that ostensibly rejected “[s]oon after the FTC Act’s passage . . . the", "paragraph_id": "para_667" }, { "text": "claim that FTC adjudication violates Article III by vesting the Commission", "paragraph_id": "para_668" }, { "text": "with ‘judicial powers.’” See Nat’l Harness Mfrs.’ Ass’n v. FTC, 268 F. 705,", "paragraph_id": "para_669" }, { "text": "707 (6th Cir. 1920) (“The act delegates to the commission no judicial", "paragraph_id": "para_670" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 21 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_671" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_672" }, { "text": "22", "paragraph_id": "para_673" }, { "text": "powers . . . .”); Ark. Wholesale Grocers’ Ass’n v. FTC, 18 F.2d 866, 870 (8th", "paragraph_id": "para_674", "court_paragraph": 22 }, { "text": "Cir. 1927) (“The [FTC] is an administrative body; it is a fact-finding body.", "paragraph_id": "para_675" }, { "text": "It . . . is within the power of Congress to delegate to an administrative body", "paragraph_id": "para_676" }, { "text": ". . . the duty and power of finding facts upon which subsequent orders may be", "paragraph_id": "para_677" }, { "text": "made.”); FTC v. Balme, 23 F.2d 615, 621 (2d Cir. 1928) (“Section 5 has so", "paragraph_id": "para_678" }, { "text": "often been considered and held to be constitutional by the courts that it is not", "paragraph_id": "para_679" }, { "text": "necessary now to consider these objections to its constitutionality.”); FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_680" }, { "text": "v. A. McLean & Son, 84 F.2d 910, 912 (7th Cir. 1936) (“They conten[d] that", "paragraph_id": "para_681" }, { "text": "section 5 of the act violates the federal constitutional mandate of separation", "paragraph_id": "para_682" }, { "text": "of governmental functions . . . . We think there is no merit in this", "paragraph_id": "para_683" }, { "text": "contention.”); Ostler Candy Co. v. FTC, 106 F.2d 962, 964 (10th Cir. 1939)", "paragraph_id": "para_684" }, { "text": "(“[T]he [cease-and-desist] order shall become final upon the expiration of", "paragraph_id": "para_685" }, { "text": "the time allowed for the filing of a petition for review . . . . [Tha]t does not", "paragraph_id": "para_686" }, { "text": "transform the order into the equivalent of a . . . judgment . . . and the", "paragraph_id": "para_687" }, { "text": "provision for judicial review meets the requirements of due process.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_688" }, { "text": "Although these cases show that courts rejected challenges to FTC", "paragraph_id": "para_689" }, { "text": "adjudication in its earliest days, they do not expressly consider the issue", "paragraph_id": "para_690" }, { "text": "through the private- and public-rights framework; the Court’s decision in", "paragraph_id": "para_691" }, { "text": "Jarkesy therefore calls these cases into question.", "paragraph_id": "para_692" }, { "text": "Relatedly, FTC urges reliance on a district court opinion that", "paragraph_id": "para_693" }, { "text": "predated Jarkesy in the Supreme Court but purported to reject the private", "paragraph_id": "para_694" }, { "text": "rights basis for Article III adjudication. See Meta Platforms, Inc. v. FTC, 723", "paragraph_id": "para_695" }, { "text": "F. Supp. 3d 64, 90–93 (D.D.C. 2024), aff’d, 2024 WL 1549732, at *3 (D.C.", "paragraph_id": "para_696" }, { "text": "Cir. 2024) (unpublished) (per curiam). The decision is not binding on this", "paragraph_id": "para_697" }, { "text": "court, was framed in a different procedural posture, and pertinent to our", "paragraph_id": "para_698" }, { "text": "conclusion, acknowledged that the “common law tort of deceit and a Section", "paragraph_id": "para_699" }, { "text": "5 violation are similar.” See id. at 92.", "paragraph_id": "para_700" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 22 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_701" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_702" }, { "text": "23", "paragraph_id": "para_703" }, { "text": "3.", "paragraph_id": "para_704", "court_paragraph": 23 }, { "text": "Attempting to put this case in the Atlas Roofing and Union Bridge", "paragraph_id": "para_705" }, { "text": "public rights camp, FTC also cites cases where the Court explained that", "paragraph_id": "para_706" }, { "text": "Section 5 does not require the Commission to limit its regulation to", "paragraph_id": "para_707" }, { "text": "traditional wrongs. See, e.g., Keppel, 291 U.S. at 310, 54 S. Ct. at 425", "paragraph_id": "para_708" }, { "text": "(“Neither the language nor the history of the act suggests that Congress", "paragraph_id": "para_709" }, { "text": "intended to confine the forbidden methods to fixed and unyielding", "paragraph_id": "para_710" }, { "text": "categories.”); FTC v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co., 405 U.S. 233, 239–40, 92", "paragraph_id": "para_711" }, { "text": "S. Ct. 898, 903 (1972) (Congress “explicitly considered, and rejected, the", "paragraph_id": "para_712" }, { "text": "notion that it reduce the ambiguity of the phrase ‘unfair methods of", "paragraph_id": "para_713" }, { "text": "competition’ by tying the concept of unfairness to a common-", "paragraph_id": "para_714" }, { "text": "law . . . standard . . . .”). These are inapposite. Neither case involved the", "paragraph_id": "para_715" }, { "text": "Commission’s regulation of deceptive advertising, and neither discussed", "paragraph_id": "para_716" }, { "text": "whether deceptive advertising was considered a traditional wrong at common", "paragraph_id": "para_717" }, { "text": "law. Section 5 may authorize FTC to assert certain claims unknown to the", "paragraph_id": "para_718" }, { "text": "common law (we need not consider the constitutionality of those other cases", "paragraph_id": "para_719" }, { "text": "today), but this case deals with deceptive advertising. As discussed above,", "paragraph_id": "para_720" }, { "text": "deceptive advertising actions relate to traditional actions, have common law", "paragraph_id": "para_721" }, { "text": "roots, and implicate private rights.", "paragraph_id": "para_722" }, { "text": "FTC falls back on the proposition that Congress has authorized", "paragraph_id": "para_723" }, { "text": "agency adjudication for 110 years, and eliminating its adjudicative authority", "paragraph_id": "para_724" }, { "text": "would largely “dismantle” the FTC Act. That purposive argument is wrong", "paragraph_id": "para_725" }, { "text": "for several reasons. First, the Supreme Court has said it is “unclear how", "paragraph_id": "para_726" }, { "text": "practice could transmute a private right into a public one,” and “practical", "paragraph_id": "para_727" }, { "text": "considerations alone can[not] justify extending the scope of the public rights", "paragraph_id": "para_728" }, { "text": "exception.” Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 131 n.2, 132, 144 S. Ct. at 2134 & n.2", "paragraph_id": "para_729" }, { "text": "(quotations omitted). Moreover, “the presence of the United States as a", "paragraph_id": "para_730" }, { "text": "proper party to the proceeding is . . . [in]sufficient” by itself to implicate", "paragraph_id": "para_731" }, { "text": "public rights. Id. at 135, 144 S. Ct. at 2136 (quotation omitted). Equally", "paragraph_id": "para_732" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 23 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_733" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_734" }, { "text": "24", "paragraph_id": "para_735" }, { "text": "important, since the 1970s, the FTC has had the power to “proceed directly", "paragraph_id": "para_736", "court_paragraph": 24 }, { "text": "to court (prior to issuing a cease and desist order) to obtain a ‘temporary", "paragraph_id": "para_737" }, { "text": "restraining order or a preliminary injunction,’ and . . . ‘in proper cases,’ to", "paragraph_id": "para_738" }, { "text": "obtain a court-ordered ‘permanent injunction.’” AMG Cap. Mgmt., LLC,", "paragraph_id": "para_739" }, { "text": "593 U.S. at 72, 141 S. Ct. at 1346 (2021) (quoting 15 U.S.C. § 53(b)). And", "paragraph_id": "para_740" }, { "text": "finally, this case determines FTC’s authority to adjudicate only deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_741" }, { "text": "advertising claims, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a)(2). We do not decide the same question", "paragraph_id": "para_742" }, { "text": "for any other “unfair methods of competition” or other “unfair or deceptive", "paragraph_id": "para_743" }, { "text": "acts or practices.” Id. § 45(a)(1).", "paragraph_id": "para_744" }, { "text": "D.", "paragraph_id": "para_745" }, { "text": "Intuit seeks reversal of the FTC’s cease-and-desist order with", "paragraph_id": "para_746" }, { "text": "instructions to dismiss. Dismissal is premature. We hold that FTC’s", "paragraph_id": "para_747" }, { "text": "enforcement action must proceed in federal court. Several consequences", "paragraph_id": "para_748" }, { "text": "may follow from this: the standard of proof required on remand may be", "paragraph_id": "para_749" }, { "text": "elevated from substantial evidence to a preponderance; the agency will have", "paragraph_id": "para_750" }, { "text": "to explain the necessity of any order, given that Intuit stopped running the", "paragraph_id": "para_751" }, { "text": "offending ads years ago; and the practicability, scope, and longevity of a", "paragraph_id": "para_752" }, { "text": "cease-and-desist order will have to be reconsidered. These “known", "paragraph_id": "para_753" }, { "text": "unknowns” require that we pretermit decision on issues that may arise on", "paragraph_id": "para_754" }, { "text": "remand.", "paragraph_id": "para_755" }, { "text": "III. CONCLUSION", "paragraph_id": "para_756" }, { "text": "Caselaw from soon after the passage of the FTC Act reflects a", "paragraph_id": "para_757" }, { "text": "widespread understanding that the statute encompassed common law actions", "paragraph_id": "para_758" }, { "text": "for “deceit,” “fraud,” and “unfair use.” Deceptive advertising claims", "paragraph_id": "para_759" }, { "text": "enforceable by the FTC arose from these traditional concepts. As former", "paragraph_id": "para_760" }, { "text": "FTC Chair Timothy Muris put it, the Commission “help[s] to reinforce the", "paragraph_id": "para_761" }, { "text": "common law rules of exchange” when it acts under its authority to “stop", "paragraph_id": "para_762" }, { "text": "unfair or deceptive acts or practices.” Timothy Muris, Chairman, Fed.", "paragraph_id": "para_763" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 24 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_764" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_765" }, { "text": "25", "paragraph_id": "para_766" }, { "text": "Trade Comm’n, Remarks before the Aspen Summit, Cyberspace and the", "paragraph_id": "para_767", "court_paragraph": 25 }, { "text": "American Dream, The Progress and Freedom Foundation, 2003 WL 21979851,", "paragraph_id": "para_768" }, { "text": "at *6 (Aug. 19, 2003). Precedent, particularly the Jarkesy decision, confirms", "paragraph_id": "para_769" }, { "text": "that FTC’s adjudication of deceptive advertising claims does not involve", "paragraph_id": "para_770" }, { "text": "public rights, and the agency must therefore redress deceptive advertising in", "paragraph_id": "para_771" }, { "text": "Article III courts.", "paragraph_id": "para_772" }, { "text": "For the foregoing reasons, we GRANT Intuit’s petition for review,", "paragraph_id": "para_773" }, { "text": "VACATE the order below, and REMAND to FTC for proceedings", "paragraph_id": "para_774" }, { "text": "consistent with this opinion.", "paragraph_id": "para_775" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 25 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_776" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_777" }, { "text": "26", "paragraph_id": "para_778" }, { "text": "James C. Ho, Circuit Judge, concurring:", "paragraph_id": "para_779", "court_paragraph": 26 }, { "text": "Our Constitution establishes three branches of government, not four.", "paragraph_id": "para_780" }, { "text": "See, e.g., Ameron, Inc. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 787 F.2d 875, 892 (3rd", "paragraph_id": "para_781" }, { "text": "Cir. 1986) (Becker, J., concurring in part); Ass’n of American Railroads v. U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_782" }, { "text": "Dep’t of Transp., 821 F.3d 19, 30–31 (D.C. Cir. 2016); Consumers’ Research v.", "paragraph_id": "para_783" }, { "text": "FCC, 109 F.4th 743, 787 (5th Cir. 2024) (Ho, J., concurring). It vests all of", "paragraph_id": "para_784" }, { "text": "the legislative powers granted by our Nation’s charter in Congress. See U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_785" }, { "text": "Const. art. I, § 1. It vests the executive power of the United States in the", "paragraph_id": "para_786" }, { "text": "President. See id. art. II, § 1. And it vests the judicial power of the United", "paragraph_id": "para_787" }, { "text": "States in the Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as Congress may", "paragraph_id": "para_788" }, { "text": "establish. See id. art. III, § 1.", "paragraph_id": "para_789" }, { "text": "Enforcing the separation of powers “isn’t about protecting", "paragraph_id": "para_790" }, { "text": "institutional prerogatives or governmental turf.” Gundy v. United States, 588", "paragraph_id": "para_791" }, { "text": "U.S. 128, 156 (2019) (Gorsuch, J., dissenting). Our Founders separated", "paragraph_id": "para_792" }, { "text": "power to preserve liberty. “By diffusing power across the three rival", "paragraph_id": "para_793" }, { "text": "branches of government, we make it difficult for government to gang up on", "paragraph_id": "para_794" }, { "text": "the citizen.” Voices for Int’l Bus. and Educ., Inc. v. NLRB, 905 F.3d 770, 780–", "paragraph_id": "para_795" }, { "text": "81 (5th Cir. 2018) (Ho, J., concurring).", "paragraph_id": "para_796" }, { "text": "If the Constitution separates power to preserve liberty, then the", "paragraph_id": "para_797" }, { "text": "Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 combines power to undermine", "paragraph_id": "para_798" }, { "text": "liberty. See, e.g., PHH Corp. v. CFPB, 881 F.3d 75, 169 (D.C. Cir. 2018)", "paragraph_id": "para_799" }, { "text": "(Kavanaugh, J., dissenting) (agencies like the FTC “exercise[] combined", "paragraph_id": "para_800" }, { "text": "powers: the executive power of enforcement, the legislative power of issuing", "paragraph_id": "para_801" }, { "text": "binding legal rules, and the judicial power of deciding adjudications”).", "paragraph_id": "para_802" }, { "text": "Because of administrative agencies like the FTC, Americans are increasingly", "paragraph_id": "para_803" }, { "text": "governed by a “headless fourth branch of government”—“a potent brew of", "paragraph_id": "para_804" }, { "text": "executive, legislative, and judicial power.” City of Arlington v. FCC, 569 U.S.", "paragraph_id": "para_805" }, { "text": "290, 314, 327 (2013) (Roberts, C.J., dissenting).", "paragraph_id": "para_806" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 26 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_807" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_808" }, { "text": "27", "paragraph_id": "para_809" }, { "text": "Our Founders would’ve been deeply troubled by a creature like the", "paragraph_id": "para_810", "court_paragraph": 27 }, { "text": "FTC. James Madison famously observed that the “accumulation of all", "paragraph_id": "para_811" }, { "text": "powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, . . . may justly", "paragraph_id": "para_812" }, { "text": "be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” The Federalist No.", "paragraph_id": "para_813" }, { "text": "47, at 324 (J. Cooke ed. 1961). One member of the First Congress warned", "paragraph_id": "para_814" }, { "text": "that such consolidations of power would become “a monster of a peculiar", "paragraph_id": "para_815" }, { "text": "enormity,” with “two heads, three heads, or four heads,” or perhaps", "paragraph_id": "para_816" }, { "text": "“without any head at all.” 1 Annals of Cong. 531 (1789) (statement of Rep.", "paragraph_id": "para_817" }, { "text": "Vining). Fortunately, just as the three-headed beast that terrorized Harry", "paragraph_id": "para_818" }, { "text": "Potter and his friends could be put to sleep simply by playing music, see", "paragraph_id": "para_819" }, { "text": "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 275–76 (1998), all we", "paragraph_id": "para_820" }, { "text": "need to do to restrain the FTC is to restore the Constitution.", "paragraph_id": "para_821" }, { "text": "The FTC’s “combined powers” present not one, but multiple", "paragraph_id": "para_822" }, { "text": "constitutional challenges. To the extent that the Commission promulgates", "paragraph_id": "para_823" }, { "text": "legal rules governing private activity, it challenges the vesting of legislative", "paragraph_id": "para_824" }, { "text": "power in the Congress. To the extent that members of the FTC enforce the", "paragraph_id": "para_825" }, { "text": "law while insulated from removal by the President, it challenges the vesting", "paragraph_id": "para_826" }, { "text": "of Article II power in our Nation’s Chief Executive. And to the extent that", "paragraph_id": "para_827" }, { "text": "private rights are adjudicated in tribunals controlled by the Commission, it", "paragraph_id": "para_828" }, { "text": "challenges the vesting of the judicial power in the federal courts.", "paragraph_id": "para_829" }, { "text": "The Supreme Court is presently considering whether the insulation of", "paragraph_id": "para_830" }, { "text": "FTC officials from Presidential removal can be reconciled with Article II. See", "paragraph_id": "para_831" }, { "text": "Trump v. Slaughter, 146 S. Ct. 18 (2025) (granting certiorari to decide", "paragraph_id": "para_832" }, { "text": "whether Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), should", "paragraph_id": "para_833" }, { "text": "be overruled). See also Feds for Medical Freedom v. Biden, 63 F.4th 366, 390", "paragraph_id": "para_834" }, { "text": "(5th Cir. 2023) (en banc) (Ho, J., concurring) (“[T]he President should", "paragraph_id": "para_835" }, { "text": "possess the constitutional authority under Article II to remove his", "paragraph_id": "para_836" }, { "text": "subordinates from office. In reality, however, the President actually controls", "paragraph_id": "para_837" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 27 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_838" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_839" }, { "text": "28", "paragraph_id": "para_840" }, { "text": "surprisingly little of the Executive Branch. . . . And that presents a rather", "paragraph_id": "para_841", "court_paragraph": 28 }, { "text": "curious distortion of our constitutional structure.”) (citations omitted).", "paragraph_id": "para_842" }, { "text": "Meanwhile, our court today confronts the challenges that the FTC’s", "paragraph_id": "para_843" }, { "text": "adjudicative powers present to Article III. “Under our Constitution, the", "paragraph_id": "para_844" }, { "text": "‘judicial power’ belongs to Article III courts and cannot be shared with the", "paragraph_id": "para_845" }, { "text": "Legislature or the Executive.” B & B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc.,", "paragraph_id": "para_846" }, { "text": "575 U.S. 138, 171 (2015) (Thomas, J., dissenting). Agency adjudication", "paragraph_id": "para_847" }, { "text": "undermines judicial independence and impartiality by subjecting the exercise", "paragraph_id": "para_848" }, { "text": "of judicial power to the agency’s will. It “threatens to sap the judicial power", "paragraph_id": "para_849" }, { "text": "as it exists under the Federal Constitution, and to establish a government of", "paragraph_id": "para_850" }, { "text": "a bureaucratic character alien to our own system.” Id. at 173 (quotations", "paragraph_id": "para_851" }, { "text": "omitted).", "paragraph_id": "para_852" }, { "text": "Our Founders did not “take it for granted . . . that independent judges", "paragraph_id": "para_853" }, { "text": "will hear our cases and controversies.” Oil States Energy Services, LLC v.", "paragraph_id": "para_854" }, { "text": "Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, 584 U.S. 325, 346 (2018) (Gorsuch, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_855" }, { "text": "dissenting). “Before the Revolution, colonial judges depended on the Crown", "paragraph_id": "para_856" }, { "text": "for their tenure and salary and often enough their decisions followed their", "paragraph_id": "para_857" }, { "text": "interests.” Id. “The problem was so serious that the founders cited it in", "paragraph_id": "para_858" }, { "text": "their Declaration of Independence (see ¶ 11).” Id. They “went to great", "paragraph_id": "para_859" }, { "text": "lengths to guarantee a degree of judicial independence for future generations", "paragraph_id": "para_860" }, { "text": "that they themselves had not experienced.” Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_861" }, { "text": "That said, Supreme Court precedent has long “recognized a class of", "paragraph_id": "para_862" }, { "text": "cases concerning what [the Court has] called ‘public rights,’” which need", "paragraph_id": "para_863" }, { "text": "not be adjudicated in Article III tribunals. SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109, 128", "paragraph_id": "para_864" }, { "text": "(2024). “Such matters historically could have been determined exclusively", "paragraph_id": "para_865" }, { "text": "by the executive and legislative branches, even when they were presented in", "paragraph_id": "para_866" }, { "text": "such form that the judicial power was capable of acting on them.” Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_867" }, { "text": "(quotations omitted).", "paragraph_id": "para_868" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 28 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_869" }, { "text": "No. 24-60040", "paragraph_id": "para_870" }, { "text": "29", "paragraph_id": "para_871" }, { "text": "This so-called “public rights exception” to Article III finds firm", "paragraph_id": "para_872", "court_paragraph": 29 }, { "text": "support in Supreme Court precedent. See id. at 127–32. But “[i]t has no", "paragraph_id": "para_873" }, { "text": "textual basis in the Constitution.” Id. at 131. It “must therefore derive", "paragraph_id": "para_874" }, { "text": "instead from background legal principles.” Id. “Without such close", "paragraph_id": "para_875" }, { "text": "attention to the basis for each asserted application of the doctrine, the", "paragraph_id": "para_876" }, { "text": "exception would swallow the rule.” Id. See also Calcutt v. FDIC, 37 F.4th", "paragraph_id": "para_877" }, { "text": "293, 349 (6th Cir. 2022) (Murphy, J., dissenting) (“There must be some limit", "paragraph_id": "para_878" }, { "text": "to the government’s ability to dissolve the Constitution’s usual separation-", "paragraph_id": "para_879" }, { "text": "of-powers and due-process protections by waving a nebulous ‘public rights’", "paragraph_id": "para_880" }, { "text": "flag at a court.”).", "paragraph_id": "para_881" }, { "text": "So if the exception “allow[s] the Executive Branch to resolve certain", "paragraph_id": "para_882" }, { "text": "matters free from judicial involvement in the first instance,” then any", "paragraph_id": "para_883" }, { "text": "attempt to invoke that exception had better be supported by a “serious and", "paragraph_id": "para_884" }, { "text": "unbroken historical pedigree.” Jarkesy, 603 U.S. at 152–53 (Gorsuch, J.,", "paragraph_id": "para_885" }, { "text": "concurring). “[P]ublic rights are a narrow class defined and limited by", "paragraph_id": "para_886" }, { "text": "history” and “has traditionally included the collection of revenue, customs", "paragraph_id": "para_887" }, { "text": "enforcement, immigration, and the grant of public benefits.” Id.", "paragraph_id": "para_888" }, { "text": "As our court rightly concludes, the FTC action presented here falls", "paragraph_id": "para_889" }, { "text": "far short of the rigorous historical standard required by Supreme Court", "paragraph_id": "para_890" }, { "text": "precedent. Accordingly, I’m pleased to join the court’s decision today in full.", "paragraph_id": "para_891" }, { "text": "Case: 24-60040 Document: 230-1 Page: 29 Date Filed: 03/20/2026", "paragraph_id": "para_892" } ], "word_count": 9298, "cites": [ "603 U.S. 109", "564 U.S. 462", "573 U.S. 25", "492 U.S. 33", "584 U.S. 325", "430 U.S. 442", "485 U.S. 224", "291\nU.S. 67", "414 U.S. 168", "324 U.S. 9", "312 U.S. 426", "253 U.S. 421", "258 U.S. 483", "291 U.S. 304", "273 U.S. 132", "593 U.S.\n67", "371\nU.S. 296", "279 U.S. 438", "280 U.S. 19", "204 U.S. 364", "256 U.S. 135", "285 U.S. 22", "280 U.S.\n291", "473 U.S. 568", "575 U.S. 665", "478 U.S. 833", "351 U.S. 79", "405 U.S. 233", "588\nU.S. 128", "569 U.S.\n290", "295 U.S. 602", "575 U.S. 138", "833 F.3d 480", "318 F.3d 1273", "861 F.2d\n1020", "33 F.3d 1088", "80 F.2d 385", "83 F.4th 171", "103 F.2d 91", "295 F.2d 869", "149 F.4th 491", "808 F.2d 1471", "81 F.3d 1371", "18 F.2d 866", "23 F.2d 615", "84 F.2d 910", "106 F.2d 962", "787 F.2d 875", "821 F.3d 19", "109 F.4th 743", "905 F.3d 770", "881 F.3d 75", "63 F.4th 366", "37 F.4th\n293" ], "cited_by": [], "sha256": "0ca7cfb6b575ff7d4a77c4a7a05c8f395052da123983808702ab506bbd838864", "source_url": "http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/24/24-60040-CV0.pdf", "fetched_at": "2026-09-28T06:11:14.95+00:00", "canonical": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/ai/judgments/us/ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20", "risk_graph": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/risk?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20", "relations_graph": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/relations?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20", "changes": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/us-praxis/changes", "agent": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/us-praxis/agent?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20", "verification": { "stored_sha256": "0ca7cfb6b575ff7d4a77c4a7a05c8f395052da123983808702ab506bbd838864", "recomputed_sha256": "0ca7cfb6b575ff7d4a77c4a7a05c8f395052da123983808702ab506bbd838864", "intact": true, "checked_at": "2026-10-12T03:56:24.250Z" } }, "hash": "sha256:56b005ca52a352079f8b5d74032e61bcf664efbee7a889da447752e3bf87016d", "version": "legal-2026-10-11", "expires": "2026-10-13T00:00:00.000Z", "dependency": { "index_version": "legal-2026-10-11+legal-2026-10-11+2026-10-11T20:37:51", "content_hash": "sha256:56b005ca52a352079f8b5d74032e61bcf664efbee7a889da447752e3bf87016d", "revalidate_after": "2026-10-12T04:56:24.384Z", "max_copy_age_seconds": 3600, "policy": "revalidate-required; attribution-preferred", "changelog": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/dependency", "verify": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/verify", "stale_copy_invalid": true }, "canonical": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/judgment-text?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20", "follow": [ { "rel": "risk", "href": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/risk?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20" }, { "rel": "relations", "href": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/relations?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20" }, { "rel": "agent", "href": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/us-praxis/agent?id=us:ca5-24-60040-2026-03-20" }, { "rel": "obligations", "href": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/obligation-chain" }, { "rel": "changes", "href": "https://legal.exploreworldai.com/api/public/v1/whats-new?jurisdiction=us" } ], "disclaimer": "Source reference with official identifier. 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