Supreme Court Lucia Case Could Remove Agency Judge Protections

For years, Ray Lucia was a nationally syndicated radio host and financial adviser who crisscrossed the U.S. touting his Buckets of Money retirement plan. Using data that regulators later argued were fake, he wowed audiences with presentations showing how his investment strategy would have protected nest eggs in the booms and busts of the 1960s and ’70s. In 2015, endorsing an administrative law judge’s finding that Lucia misled retirees, the Securities and Exchange Commission kicked him out of the financial advice business.

On April 23, Lucia’s appeal will be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court, with Lucia arguing that the judge who first ...