This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Free Enterprise Fund and Beckstead and Watts, LLP v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, an important separation of powers case. I went to the argument, and from what I saw — or rather, what I heard, as I was in the overflow seating in the Lawyer’s Lounge — the day did not go well for the challengers to the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. The Justices seemed to think the Board didn’t have many powers and was pretty closely controlled by the SEC, addressing the constitutional objections. I don’t teach or write in this area, so maybe I was missing something obvious, but my read was that the Court would readily conclude the Board is constitutional.
UPDATE: The transcript is here.