CASE
SUMMARY
NCLA challenges the Securities and Exchange Commission’s denial of our long-standing petition to amend the agency’s “Gag Rule.” In place for over five decades, this pernicious rule forbids every American who settles a regulatory enforcement case with SEC from even truthfully criticizing their cases in public, violating their First Amendment rights. SEC ignored NCLA’s initial petition challenging the Gag Rule for more than five years, only issuing a denial after NCLA filed a renewed petition in December 2023.
The Gag Rule is not narrowly tailored, serves no legitimate or compelling government interest, restricts speech based on content and viewpoint, and restrains future speech, violating the First Amendment. It infringes news organizations’ First Amendment rights to Freedom of the Press to hear and report the views SEC enforcement targets wish to express about their cases. It conceals vital information about SEC enforcement policies. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce issued a stinging dissent from SEC’s denial decision, powerfully arguing that “the American public, not government censors” must be the arbiters of the validity of speech.