DRC: SEC’s Disclosure Requirement on Conflict Minerals Again Ruled Unconstitutional — What Now?

Aug 19, 2015 | Jessica S. Lochmann, Frank S. Murray, and Mark T. Plichta, National Law Review
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In a long-awaited decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (DC Circuit) reaffirmed its prior decision, striking down one aspect of the SEC’s conflict minerals disclosure rule as unconstitutional compelled speech. In April 2014, the three-judge panel had ruled that the requirement for reporting companies to identify their products as “not found to be ‘DRC conflict-free’” represented compelled commercial speech in violation of the First Amendment and could not be enforced by the SEC as part of its conflict minerals disclosure rule. The three-judge panel subsequently agreed to rehear the case and revisit its prior ruling in the wake of a decision last summer by the full DC Circuit in another commercial speech case, American Meat Institute et al. v. U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture, which had rejected a challenge by meat industry groups to a government-imposed country-of-origin labeling requirement.