Supreme Court Won’t Halt Disciplinary Proceeding Against Securities Firm

The D.C. Circuit allowed the action to move forward despite sharing the company’s concerns about the constitutionality of a regulatory body’s prosecuting it.

Chief Justice John Roberts attends the State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 7, 2023. Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Getty Images

The U.S. Supreme Court on March 14 denied Alpine Securities Corporation’s emergency request to stop a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) enforcement action aiming to bar it from the securities business.

The company is arguing that FINRA, a self-regulating organization that is charged with supervising member firms under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversight, lacks authority under the U.S. Constitution to enforce its regulations because it is a private organization that is not formally part of the federal government.