US Supreme Court Securities-Fraud Jurisprudence: An Emerging New Direction?
Doug Greene
National Practice Leader, Securities and Governance Litigation Team at BakerHostetler
How will the 2017 arrival of Justice Neil Gorsuch influence the US Supreme Court’s securities-fraud jurisprudence?
My colleague Kristin Beneski and I discuss this question in an August 2017 Washington Legal Foundation Working Paper titled “US Supreme Court Securities-Fraud Jurisprudence: An Emerging New Direction?”
In our Working Paper, we analyze whether Justice Gorsuch may urge the Court to chip away at the viability of securities class actions—such as by revisiting the Basic v. Levinson fraud-on-the-market presumption or narrowing the meaning of scienter—and whether he may push for a return to the days of caveat emptor and the puffery doctrine in evaluating the falsity and materiality of statements challenged as fraudulent. We also question whether such possible jurisprudential shifts would be in the best interest of securities-fraud defendants.
I hope you’ll review our Working Paper (here).