OVERVIEW
In 2019, the Supreme Court issued an important securities law
decision in Lorenzo v. SEC, which clarified the scope of
"scheme liability" under Rule 10b-5(a) and (c). However,
the Supreme Court's year was noteworthy more for the cases the
Court declined to decide than for the cases it did decide. The
Court declined to rule on several significant issues arising from
the Ninth Circuit, including whether plaintiffs must show that the
defendant acted with scienter when bringing claims under Section
14(e), whether foreign issuers can face liability with respect to
unsponsored American Depositary Receipts under Morrison,
and the standard for establishing loss causation.
The circuit and district courts also addressed several contested
securities laws topics, including a significant ruling from the
Tenth Circuit in SEC v. Scoville, which held that the
Dodd-Frank Act permits the SEC to bring claims based on sales of
securities that do not constitute domestic
