By Justin Shur and Eric Nitz ( July 17, 2017, 3:28 PM EDT) -- "[I]t is ordered and adjudged that the petition for review is denied by an equally divided court." With that single sentence, the en banc D.C. Circuit in Raymond J. Lucia Cos. v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission all but guaranteed that the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on a question that has divided circuits and district courts alike: whether administrative law judges (ALJs), who hear most SEC enforcement actions in the first instance, are currently appointed in a manner that complies with the Constitution's appointments clause. The question isn't merely academic. The resolution of that question has the potential to invalidate thousands of SEC enforcement actions and redraw the contours of the administrative state....