Fifth Circuit Presses Pause on SEC’s Final Climate Regulation
Authors:
Betty Huber , Paul Davies, and Sarah Fortt
Date:
21 March 2024
Category:
Enforceable Regulations
Keyword:
Climate Change,
Private Sector
Language:
English
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On March 15, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted an administrative stay of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently finalized climate disclosure rules, in response to a March 8 request.[1] Petitioners had requested the stay in light of the “irreparable injury in the form of unrecoverable compliance costs and constitutional injuries” that they said would result from the rules. In opposing the petitioners’ request, the Commission stated that it was too early for the Fifth Circuit to issue a stay given that the final rules have yet to be published in the Federal Register and will not require disclosures until 2026 at the earliest. The Commission also referenced the lottery by which a court will be chosen to handle the litigation challenging the regulations, accusing the petitioners of forum shopping. The three-judge panel did not provide details on its reasoning.
The stay is just the latest development in the rapidly evolving litigation landscape with respect to the SEC’s final rules, which had been predicted to be subject to litigation since the SEC issued the proposed rules in March 2022. Now, nearly two years later, the final rules have been the focus of a number of legal challenges in the first days since adoption