The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, entered a preliminary injunction preventing the SEC from conducting an administrative proceeding in an insider trading matter.  The Court found the plaintiff has a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of his claim that the SEC violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.

When the order was entered, the Court directed the parties to confer on a timetable for conducting discovery and briefing the remaining issues.  The parties were unable to agree, and the SEC submitted one timetable and the plaintiff submitted another timetable.

The SEC’s filing states it intends to ask the Court to stay the proceedings so that it can appeal the Court’s ruling.  According to the SEC, “any further proceedings in this Court could prove largely superfluous and a waste of the parties’ and the Court’s resources.”