On August 13, 2013, the business group-plaintiffs in the legal challenge to the SEC's conflict minerals rule, Rule 13p-1 under the Exchange Act, filed a notice of appeal of the July 23, 2013 judgment of the District Court for the District of Columbia upholding the rule and Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the statute requiring the rule. According to an August 13, 2013 clerk's order, dispositive motions for the appeal are due on September 23, 2013.

Unless the conflict minerals rule is struck down or stayed pending resolution of the appeal, the first report under the rule must be filed by June 2, 2014, covering the 2013 calendar year. The appeal is pending in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which recently vacated and remanded the SEC's resource extraction rule (Rule 13q-1 under the Exchange Act) (see Legal Update, SEC's Resource Extraction Rule Vacated and Remanded). The resource extraction rule was made under Section 1502's companion statute, Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

To learn more about the District Court's opinion upholding the conflict minerals rule, see Legal Update, District Court Rejects Challenge to Conflict Minerals Rule. For more information on the conflict minerals rule and this legal challenge, see Conflict Minerals Rule Compliance Toolkit.