September 5, 2024 - The deadline has passed for the SEC to submit a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in connection with the Decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in the Private Fund Advisers Rule (“PFAR”).  In its unanimous ruling a panel of the Fifth Circuit vacated the PFAR in its entirety, holding that the SEC lacked the statutory authority to impose it.  The passing of the deadline formally marks the end of the litigation and, with it, the end of the PFAR.

Importantly, several other proposed rules are implicated by the Fifth Circuit’s decision, including the Outsourcing Rule, the Conflicts of Interest Associated with the Use of Predictive Data Analytics Rule and Cybersecurity Risk Rule for Investment Advisers. In a letter submitted to the SEC following the PFAR decision, the LSTA and the other trade associations urged the Commission to withdraw the proposed rules since those rules rely on the same dubious statutory authority as the SEC relied on in PFAR.

Now that the deadline to appeal has passed, it will be interesting to see the posture the Commission takes with respect to those proposed rules as well as others that could be affected by the Fifth Circuit’s ruling.  We will continue to closely follow developments.