Conflict Minerals

November 18, 2015 | Written by GreenSoft Technology, Inc.

Court Denies SEC’s Petition for Rehearing in Conflict Minerals Case

With surprising speed, the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has denied the SEC and Amnesty International's petition for a rehearing en banc of the Court's recent rulings on the Conflict Mineral provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.

In April 2014, the Court determined that provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that required companies to state their products have “not been found to be DRC conflict free” violate the companies’ First Amendment rights. A three-judge panel reaffirmed that decision in August 2015 after the SEC appealed the April ruling in November 2014. The SEC and Amnesty International filed a petition to rehear the case in front of the entire D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on October 2. That petition was denied on November 9th.

There is still an option left that the SEC and Amnesty International could take, according to Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP. The SEC now has 90 days from the date of the denial to file a petition for a writ of certiorari seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of the appellate court decision.

As has been the status quo since August, the remainder of the Conflict Minerals law is still in effect. Affected companies will still be required to report or disclose their conflict mineral data. Only the provision requiring companies to state whether their products are “DRC conflict free,” “not been found to be DRC conflict free” or “DRC conflict undeterminable” has been struck down.

We will keep our readers posted on this ongoing litigation. For help with Conflict Minerals compliance, Smelter or Refiner Validation, or to receive a demo of our Conflict Minerals Module GreenData Manager Software, contact sales@greensofttech.com.