This week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held
that the Security and Exchange Commission's ("SEC")
final rule concerning "conflict mineral" disclosures is
unconstitutional. Nat'l Assoc. of Mfrs v. SEC, No.
13-5252 (D.C. Cir., decided April 14, 2014). The SEC rule
requires registrants to disclose annually on a Form SD whether
their products incorporate conflict minerals (i.e., tin, tungsten,
tantalum, and gold, mined in war-torn Central Africa) or whether
their products are "DRC Conflict Free."
The court ruled that, by requiring companies to report whether
their products are free of conflict minerals, the SEC rule
improperly compelled commercial speech in violation of the First
Amendment. Accordingly, the court invalidated both the
SEC's final rule and the underlying statutory provision in the
2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
("Dodd-Frank"), but only "to the extent the statute
and rule require regulated entities to
