Paul Davies, Sarah Fortt, and Betty Huber are Partners at Latham & Watkins LLP. This post is based on their Latham memorandum.
On March 21, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was selected as the court that will hear challenges against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) over its final climate disclosures rules, which were adopted on March 6.[1] On April 4, 2024, the SEC announced that it would voluntarily stay its final climate disclosure rules pending judicial review.[2] The announcement comes on the heels of multiple requests for a stay filed by petitioners in the Eighth Circuit, where, as mentioned above, cases challenging the rules were recently consolidated.
Prior to consolidation in the Eighth Circuit, the Fifth Circuit had granted an administrative stay of the final climate disclosure rules on March 15. (For more on that court’s decision, see our blog post.) However, the Fifth Circuit lifted its administrative stay just one week later as part of its order transferring the case to the Eighth Circuit.