On Aug. 18, 2015, a divided panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in National Ass’n of Manufacturers v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Minerals II) reaffirmed its April 2014 decision that the SEC’s conflict minerals rule, and the underlying provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, violate the First Amendment to the extent they require a company to report to the SEC, and to state on its website, that any of its products have “not been found to be ‘[Democratic Republic of the Congo] conflict free.’”[1]  The panel had agreed to reconsider the case because of an intervening en banc decision of the full D.C. Circuit in another case, American Meat Institute v. U.S. Department of Agriculture (Meat II),[2] which raised a similar First Amendment challenge to USDA requirements for labeling meat products.
Continue Reading Mixing Meat And Minerals On Compelled Commercial Speech