Amicus Briefs
Ortega & Rogers v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
CASE SUMMARY
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the Texas bank where Saul Ortega and David Rogers, Jr. Ortega and Rogers worked as officers in 2013, and four years later the Office’s Enforcement Counsel charged them with misconduct that allegedly led to the bank’s failure. Their case was subsequently cycled through three different OCC Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), with the last ALJ recommending monetary and other sanctions against Ortega and Rogers. The Comptroller of the Currency adopted the ALJ’s recommendation in relevant part and imposed a fine of $250,000 on each defendant. Ortega and Rogers never had the chance to defend themselves against OCC’s allegations before a jury.
NCLA asks the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to hear this case and overturn OCC’s unlawful deicision against Ortega and Rogers. Denying them a jury trial violated their rights under the Seventh Amendment. OCC’s in-house adjudication of its allegations against them also violates the Article III constitutional guarantee of an independent judiciary.
As the Supreme Court held in Jarkesy v. SEC, the Seventh Amendment bars Congress from assigning traditional common law causes of action to adjudication in administrative tribunals instead of properly constituted Article III courts. Simply put, Congress cannot escape the constitutional jury trial guarantee where private rights are at stake and a federal agency seeks to exact a civil penalty.