The U.S. Supreme Court held Thursday that federal agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must seek civil penalties in court, and not through administrative proceedings, a decision dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor called a “devastating blow” to the functioning of government that will imperil countless other laws.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. announced the court’s 6-3 decision Thursday in SEC v. Jarkesy, agreeing with a hedge fund founder accused of fraud that the SEC’s practice of asking its in-house administrative law judges to impose monetary penalties on defendants violates the Constitution’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.