The WSJ is reporting that, contrary to all expectations (including my own), “the U.S. Chamber of Commerce isn’t planning to mount a legal challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pay ratio rule.”...more
An amicus brief filed in the conflict minerals case, National Association of Manufacturers, Inc. v. SEC, was submitted this week by a group of anti-smoking and other organizations dedicated to protecting public health: Truth...more
On Friday, the SEC and Amnesty International each filed petitions seeking a rehearing en banc of the August 2015 panel opinion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding the conflict minerals...more
To no one’s surprise, on Friday, the SEC and Amnesty International filed petitions for en banc rehearing in the conflict minerals case, National Association of Manufacturers, Inc. v. SEC. That case, decided two-to-one in...more
The Sixth Circuit last week concluded that Morrison, which held that Section 10(b) does not have extraterritorial reach, is inapplicable to Advisers Act Section 10(b). The DC Circuit, on rehearing, reaffirmed its prior...more
The SEC’s conflict mineral disclosure rule, enacted under Dodd-Frank, is a continuing source of controversy. An initial challenge to the rules was brought by the National Association of Manufactures. That challenge was...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued its decision on the conflict minerals rule after a rehearing. In National Association of Manufacturers, et al, v. SEC, the Court adhered to its original...more
According to a Bloomberg BNA report, a representative of the Chamber of Commerce, one of the plaintiffs in National Association of Manufacturers, Inc. v. SEC, the conflict minerals case currently pending in the DC Circuit,...more
In the final week of 2014, appellants National Association of Manufacturers, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable filed their supplemental brief in the conflict minerals case, National Association of...more
In November, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the petitions of the SEC and Amnesty International for panel rehearing in connection with the conflict minerals case, National Association of Manufacturers, Inc. v. SEC....more
On November 18, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the SEC’s motion to rehear the court’s decision in NAM v. SEC. As covered in previous blog posts, the court’s NAM decision held that portions of...more
The D.C. Circuit court of Appeals has granted the petitions of the SEC and Amnesty International for panel rehearing (and the motion of Amnesty to file a supplemental brief) in connection with the conflict minerals case,...more
On August 15, 2014, in the conflict minerals case, National Association of Manufacturers v. Securities and Exchange Commission (D.C. Cir. 2014), Intervenors-Appellees Amnesty International filed a brief in support of its...more
As we have discussed over the last few months, the fate of the conflict minerals rule has been uncertain. In April 2014, in the National Association of Manufacturers (“NAM”) case, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...more
The D.C. Circuit attracted plenty of attention by ruling that one of the SEC’s conflict mineral disclosure rules – promulgated pursuant to a specific Congressional mandate in the Dodd-Frank Act – violated the First Amendment....more
Court denies emergency motion for a stay. By order issued on May 14, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia denied the appellants’ emergency motion for a stay of the Securities and Exchange...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
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
On May 2, 2014, the SEC issued an order partially staying its Conflict Minerals Rule. Essentially, the order reiterates the SEC’s April 29, 2014, guidance that the Commission will not require companies subject to the conflict...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
The SEC issued guidance on its interpretation of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision that certain portions of the SEC’s conflict minerals reporting requirements violate the First Amendment...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