The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has granted the petition for a panel rehearing (as opposed to an en banc rehearing) in the conflict minerals case. The court asked the parties to file briefs...more
The Payson Center for International Development of Tulane University Law School released a study analyzing the results of a June 2014 survey of issuers who filed the required Form SD. The study investigates the market impact...more
Earlier, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the appellants in the conflict minerals case, NAM et al, to file a response to the SEC’s and Amnesty International’s petition for an en...more
The good news is the Commerce Department published a list of ”all known conflict mineral processing facilities worldwide” as required by section 1502(d)(3)(C) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. ...more
The SEC, the perceived loser in the conflicts minerals case at the time, filed a petition for an en banc rehearing on May 29, 2014. NAM, the perceived winner at the time, stayed silent. After these many months, with public...more
Amnesty International has filed a supplemental brief which continues to advocate for a rehearing en banc in the conflict minerals case. The argument is this: American Meat Institute v. U.S. Department of Agriculture...more
In April 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held the SEC’s conflict minerals rule and statute embodied in Dodd-Frank violate the First Amendment to the extent the statute and rule require...more
The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, has issued a report noting the SEC issued a rule in 2012 requiring certain companies to disclose the source and chain of custody of necessary conflict minerals in their products....more
SEC Commissioner Kara M. Stein recently gave remarks on the status of required Dodd-Frank rulemakings. The pay ratio, claw back, conflict minerals and resources extraction rules didn’t really seem all that important to her...more
A report issued by the organization Enough Project indicates market changes spurred by the Dodd-Frank Act’s provisions on conflict minerals have helped to significantly reduce the involvement of armed groups in eastern...more
The SEC has filed documentation with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals seeking an en banc rehearing of the conflict minerals decision. The original decision found that one piece of the disclosure required by the...more
The holy grail (at least so far) of conflict minerals precedents was filed with the SEC albeit perhaps too late for many issuers to wholesale change course. But still excellent for a final form check. ...more
Now that NAM et al’s emergency stay motion in the conflicts minerals case has been denied, the question is what happens next. Clues can be found in the briefing for the unsuccessful emergency stay motion....more
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has issued a per curiam order denying NAM’s motion for an emergency stay of the conflict minerals rules. Looked like kind of a moonshot anyway. The order is...more
NAM et al have filed their reply brief in the conflict minerals emergency stay hearing. Highlights, many of which are not new points, are...more
The second Form SD and related conflicts minerals report has been filed. They are interesting documents but may still not be the holy grail of precedents because of, among other things, the use of terms like “Conflict Free...more
I hope NAM et al are successful in their motion for a stay of the conflict minerals rules, but it certainly isn’t a slam dunk. The SEC has filed its response to the motion for emergency stay. ...more
NAM et al’s original motion for an emergency stay in the conflict minerals case requested a decision by May 26, 2014, just ahead of the filing deadline for Form SD. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of...more
NAM et al have filed an emergency motion for stay with the Court of Appeals in the conflict minerals case. As predicted, it is largely a replay of the arguments made when NAM asked the SEC for a stay....more
The SEC has denied NAM’s motion for a full stay of the conflict minerals rules. As I indicated, it was somewhat of a hail Mary, but maybe a precondition to asking the court for relief. ...more
When Commissioners Daniel M. Gallagher and Michael S. Piwowar released this Joint Statement on the Conflict Minerals Decision on April 28, 2014, I wondered where it would go. ...more
At the core, the court’s first amendment objection to the conflict minerals rules was that by requiring issuers to state its products have not been found to be “DRC conflict free” it compelled an issuer to “confess blood on...more
In a letter to the SEC Chair, Mary Jo White, Senator Edward J. Markey and a group of other Member of Congress urged the financial oversight agency to implement the rule requiring due diligence and reporting requirements on...more
In a little known action, the Clerk of Court of the Unites States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued an order in the conflicts minerals case to withhold issuance of a mandate until seven days after...more
In the end, it’s pretty simple. The court held the conflicts minerals rule and statute embodied in Dodd-Frank violate the First Amendment to the extent the statute and rule require regulated entities to report to the...more