In March 2018, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Mark Solomon conducted a hearing regarding plaintiff Mollie Marie Flinton’s Social Security application. He had not been properly appointed at this time in compliance with the Constitution’s Appointment Clause, yet still issued a decision denying her benefits. After the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York remanded Flinton’s case to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for a near hearing in 2020, Flinton again appeared before ALJ Solomon for a hearing in August 2021. This time, however, ALJ Solomon had been ratified by the Commissioner of Social Security, now in compliance with the Constitution’s Appointment Clause. Pertinent to the case is the June 2018 Supreme Court decision in Lucia v. SEC, where the court held that ALJs of the SEC are “Officers of the United States” within the purview of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. Since they were “inferior officers,” only “the President, a court of law, or a head of department” could properly appoint them to their positions.

In response to rapid technological advances in the broadcast industry, Congress enacted the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to “promote competition and relax statutory ownership restrictions.” The Act gave the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broad authority to regulate broadcast ownership and required, under Section 202(h), that the FCC review its media ownership rules every four years to determine whether they remain “necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.” In conducting these reviews, the FCC considers whether existing rules promote competition, localism, and diversity of viewpoints.