On April 14, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in the challenge to the
SEC's conflict minerals disclosure rule filed by the National
Association of Manufacturers ("NAM") and other industry
groups, giving the challengers a partial victory on First Amendment
grounds. NAM had challenged several aspects of the SEC's rules
as violating the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"),
the Exchange Act, and the First Amendment. The Court rejected the
APA and Exchange Act challenges to the rules, but by a 2-1 margin
found that certain aspects of the SEC's rules violate the First
Amendment by compelling issuers to engage in stigmatizing
commercial speech about their own products. Whether that partial
victory will result in meaningful changes to the SEC's conflict
minerals reporting regime remains to be determined, as the
Court's First Amendment ruling focused on the rule's
requirement that issuers use the particular descriptor
