Scalia Gets Green Light to Work on Fiduciary Rule

In a statement, he continued: "The fact of the matter is he can't separate his prior work doing the industry's bidding and the sensitive information about his clients that he learned in his role as their advocate from a future rulemaking that would involve the same issues and clients."

Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, an advocacy group that supports financial regulation, said that Scalia should recuse himself from a fiduciary rulemaking despite the ethics decision.

"The new rule is expected to be highly favorable to the industry and consistent with his prior private sector representation," Kelleher said in a statement. "Thus, Scalia, as Secretary of the Department of Labor, would appear to be advancing the positions of his former private sector clients, creating a conflict of interest that should be prohibited."

In his nomination hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Scalia said, "I was retained by clients to address a rule; it was a controversial rule. Thankfully, the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped in and itself adopted what's called a best-interest standard with respect to broker-dealers who are folks that ordinarily are regulated directly by the SEC, rather than by the Department of Labor. Again, having worked at the department before, I'm very mindful of this special role that the department has in protecting pensions and workers' retirements."

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• Scalia Is Still in the DOL Fiduciary Rule Game
• Scalia Sworn In as New Labor Secretary