The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, is suing the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court to challenge its decades-old policy of imposing “gag orders” on settling defendants in civil enforcement actions.
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“The sole purpose of the gag regulation is to affect public perception of the SEC and the SEC’s enforcement activities,” the Cato lawsuit says. “It accomplishes its purpose by restricting constitutionally protected speech—specifically, speech critical of the SEC itself … The SEC demands blanket, perpetual gag orders of this sort in every case it settles without making any individualized determinations about the need for such an order or the appropriate scope of such an order in a given case.”
via SEC faces lawsuit over ‘gag orders’ in enforcement settlements | Compliance Week.
