The Wall Street Journal quotes Professor Joseph Grundfest on the rulings of the in-house court at the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission faces a “crisis of confidence” over its in-house court, a former top agency official on Wednesday told a congressional panel examining legislation to reform the tribunal.

Joseph Grundfest, a former SEC commissioner who is now a law professor at Stanford University, said there were “fundamental issues of fairness” raised by the agency’s increasing use of its five administrative law judges, including for serious cases.

Mr. Grundfest was giving evidence to the House Financial Services subcommittee on capital markets. A bill introduced in October by the panel’s chairman, Scott Garrett (R., N.J), would give defendants the right to choose a trial by a federal judge or jury, rather than before one of the SEC’s in-house judges.