At this point it is not clear if the decision only impacts PCAOB governance or other elements of the SOX law. The Supreme Court explicitly said its decision about the PCAOB is severable from the rest of SOX and that the PCAOB's operations can continue as usual. Only the job security of its five board members has changed. The ruling leaves it to Congress to re-establish the panel with tighter oversight, potentially setting up a new legislative fight that might sweep in other aspects of Sarbanes-Oxley.  It is hard to predict what will happen, but certainly PCAOB is not out of business.  Nevertheless it does create some confusion in the short term.  In today’s political climate it would seem likely that regulation will increase, rather than decrease.  It seems likely that the government will seek as much control as they can.  The high profile recent frauds (i.e. Bernie Madoff) has created a desire for more regulation of industry.  And democrats who are in control have shown a clear tendency toward greater government control and intervention.  Perhaps we will have yet another Czar to address how to best resolve the governance issue created by the Supreme Court for PCAOB.