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An U.S. District Court judge heard arguments Thursday challenging a sweeping 2002 federal law to clean up corporate accounting, in a case questioning whether the accounting oversight board created by the law is constitutional.

Free-market groups and a small Nevada accounting firm argue that the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which is charged with inspecting and disciplining auditors, is unconstitutional. Lawyers for the oversight board and the U.S. Justice Department rejected that in lengthy oral arguments in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Both sides are seeking summary judgment in the case, and Judge James Robertson said he hopes to issue a ruling “as soon as I can.”

Beckstead and Watts, a Nevada audit firm, was sanctioned by the oversight board but, rather than appeal the matter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, it joined with groups such as the Free Enterprise Fund to sue the private, non-profit oversight board on grounds that it violates the appointments clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Morningstar:Legal Arguments Aired In Challenge To Sarbanes-Oxley Law