Supreme Court Upholds Sarbanes-Oxley

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) survived a major challenge, although the group's members will have less job security in the future.

The challenge was based on the board's structure, claiming the board was illegal because it was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission rather than by the president. Rather than tossing the entire act or returning to the law that existed before passage of the act, the SEC will now have the power to remove board members at will following the high court's decision.

According to the New York Times, the PCAOB is likely to get a load of new members, including for the first time, an auditor with experience being regulated by the PCAOB.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted in the majority opinion that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act remains "fully operative as a law....the Constitution that makes the president accountable to the people for executing the laws also gives him the power to do so," the chief justice added. "That power includes, as a general matter, the authority to remove those who assist him in carrying out his duties. Without such power, the president could not be held fully accountable for discharging his own responsibilities; the buck would stop somewhere else."