Wow – things are moving fast with the SEC’s Climate-related Disclosure Rules. Despite being less than a month old and not even effective, they are being litigated by a variety of Plaintiffs. That litigation has already jumped through several procedural hoops. First, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the Rule, then the SEC moved to consolidate the cases, landing the consolidated litigation in the Eighth Circuit. Now, the Fifth Circuit has lifted their stay as a procedural matter. A recent Cooley memo states:
“Today, the Fifth Circuit ordered the transfer of the petition to the Eighth Circuit and the dissolution of the administrative stay. It’s worth noting that one of the three judges, Judge Jones, indicated her belief that the docket should stay as is pending transfer. Whether the stay will be reinstituted by the Eighth Circuit remains to be seen.”
It is worth noting that lifting the stay was not an action of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals but of the Fifth Circuit in transferring the case, essentially giving the Eighth Circuit a blank slate from which to work. This means that the stay could very well be reimplemented by the Eighth circuit once proceedings ramp up. Normally we would expect that to take some time, but litigation of this rule seems to have warp engines.
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