As discussed in these PubCo posts from Monday, Saturday and Tuesday, on March 15, in a one-sentence order, the Fifth Circuit granted a motion by Liberty Energy Inc. and Nomad Proppant Services LLC for an administrative stay of the SEC final climate disclosure rules. That case was just one of nine challenging the SEC’s rules in six different circuits, with seven petitioners contending that the SEC went too far and had no authority to issue the rules and two affirming the SEC’s authority and contending that, in rolling back the proposal, the SEC has “fallen short of its statutory mandate to protect investors.”
As previously noted, the longevity of the Fifth Circuit stay, as well as the ultimate outcome of the litigation about the climate disclosure rules, would likely be determined by another court that was designated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to hear the multiple pending challenges to the rules on a consolidated basis. Today, the SEC notified the clerks of the various courts of appeal that, on March 21, 2024, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a consolidation order in these cases. As that order notes, the Panel has randomly selected the Eighth Circuit as the court in which to consolidate these petitions. Bloomberg has reported that, of 17 appellate judges in the Eighth Circuit, only one was appointed by a Democrat. Not that the politics should matter, of course. The consolidation is “effective when the Clerk of the Panel enters the consolidation order.” The case is called In Re: Securities and Exchange Commission, The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors, Issued on March 6, 2024, MCP No. 180
