FILE PHOTO - The seal of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission hangs on the wall at SEC headquarters in Washington, DC, U.S. on June 24, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended some of its pending in-house court cases, after a Denver-based federal appeals court found the agency had violated the Constitution in how it hired its administrative law judges.

In an order dated May 22, the SEC said it would suspend any cases in which a defendant will have an option to appeal a case before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

The SEC’s order comes after that same appeals court earlier this month declined reconsider the ruling which found the SEC’s hiring of its judges violated the Constitution’s appointments clause.