D.C. Circuit Rules Conflict Minerals Law, SEC Regulation Violate First Amendment

摘要

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded April 14 that the Securities and Exchange Commission's conflict minerals regulation, and the statute requiring the rulemak-ing, violated the First Amendment (Nat'l Ass'n of Mfrs. v. SEC, 2014 BL 102614, D.C. Cir., No. 13-5252, 4/14/14). The statute and the SEC rule are unconstitutional to the extent that they require companies "to tell consumers that its products are ethically tainted, even if they only indirectly finance armed groups," the court majority said in a decision authored by Judge A. Raymond Randolph. "By compelling an issuer to confess blood on its hands, the statute interferes with that exercise of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment."