By Harold Krent (April 25, 2018, 6:11 PM EDT) -- When the solicitor general did an about-face in Lucia v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and agreed with petitioner Raymond Lucia's argument that the SEC itself must appoint administrative law judges to conform with the appointments clause, the result seemed foreseeable. The court's precedents in Freytag v. Commissioner[1] and Edmond v. United States[2] strongly suggest that SEC ALJs are inferior officers, for they exercise functions similar to those of the special trial judges in the former and appellate judges in the latter. But the oral argument on Monday, April 23, in Lucia suggests that the justices may be more divided than one would expect....