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“There is at the minimum an appearance of a conflict of interest,” said Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor Harold Krent, “and that’s something that should be avoided by the court. It wasn’t. And so if the justices are going to thumb their nose at this kind of written ethics rule, then maybe Congress has to do something more stringent.”

The SEC had already taken the hint from a 2018 case that the Supreme Court wasn't thrilled with in-house judges and cases and brought its most serious types of fraud cases to the courts, says James Tierney, assistant professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a former staff attorney for the agency. “The SEC doesn't have infinite resources, and so if the cost of settlement goes up, it means they're going to have fewer resources to bring enforcement actions,” Tierney says.

“I think everybody knows intellectually, you have to decide not to do it,” said Chicago-Kent Professor Richard Kling. “You realize if you get caught, you’re going to get in trouble. You see that with governor after governor and other politicians. The bottom line is they know if they get caught they’re in trouble, but like many other people, their thought is, I’m not going to get caught,”