Law Commons^™

Playing Peekaboo With Constitutional Law: The Pcaob And Its Public/Private Status, Donna M. Nagy

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article is the first to consider the constitutional status of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB - pronounced by some as peekaboo). Congress created the PCAOB in 2002 to regulate the accounting profession in response to scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and other public companies. The Article argues that notwithstanding the PCAOB's congressional designation as a nonprofit corporation in the private sector, its governmental creation, governmental objectives, governmental powers, and governmentally appointed board members render it a public (or state) actor for purposes of constitutional law. The Article also analyzes the PCAOB from a policy perspective, and argues that …