US Court to rehear ‘conflict minerals’ case

The US Court of Appeals agreed last week to grant a request by the US Securities and Exchange Commission to rehear the case against the ‘conflict minerals’ rule. In the court’s first ruling in April, a three-judge panel threw out the disclosure requirement on labelling which was considered a breach of the First Amendment of the US Constitution regarding free speech since it was concluded to violate companies’ rights by forcing them to condemn their own products as not DRC conflict-free under certain circumstances. This issue is now being revisited in light of a July decision of the appeals court on an unrelated meat labelling rule which concluded there was no free speech violation in that case, and which clarified the approach to cases involving free speech challenges to government rules mandating company statements. A three-judge panel will on a date yet to be scheduled hear another round of oral arguments in the case before issuing a new ruling.