Impact of Conflict Minerals Ruling Begins to be Seen

Nov 2, 2016 | Celia Taylor
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Perhaps the most important result of the long and tortured legal proceedings in Nat'l Ass'n of Mfrs. v. SEC ("NAM") is the ultimate finding that the requirement that issuers in certain circumstances must label their products as “non-DRC conflict free” violates their First Amendment rights.  

On October 24, just before the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Final Rule (“Fair Pay Rule”) was scheduled to go into effect, Judge Marcia A. Crone in the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide preliminary injunction prohibiting key provisions of the rule from taking effect. In the absence of an injunction, the so-called “blacklisting” rule would have mandated, among other things, that companies bidding on certain federal contracts and subcontracts publicly disclose information regarding “labor law violations” as part of the bidding process.