The array of challenges to the SEC's climate disclosure rule--filed by conservative plaintiffs in the Fifth Circuit, Sixth Circuit, Eighth Circuit, and Eleventh Circuit, and by liberal groups in the Second Circuit and D.C. Circuit--will be decided by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. This assignment was made by the lottery operated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
The Eighth Circuit is a conservative-leaning court; of the seventeen judges, all but one were appointed by Republican presidents. This judicial composition may be favorable to the challenges by conservative states and organizations, which feature arguments that the SEC exceeded its authority by promulgating the climate disclosure rule.
Litigation over whether the SEC can require public companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate-related information to investors will be consolidated and reviewed by the conservative-leaning Eighth Circuit, as the result of a lottery drawing Thursday.