June 9, 2007

Add a Wall Street Journal editorial and an AEI On The Issues by me to the wealth of voices (Jun. 7) criticizing SEC Chair Cox for breaking with common sense and two other SEC commissioners to vote to support the plaintiffs' case. Bloomberg is reporting that Treasury Secretary Paulson asked Solicitor General Clement to ask the Supreme Court for clarity on the primary liability of companies for other companies' fraud. (Update: also Washington Post.) We'll know how the intra-administration battle shapes up on Monday when briefs are filed.

Ribstein also comments: "The best the Court could do would be to take cert on Lerach's Enron case, the most fully developed scheme liability case to date, and kill the monster and all of its limbs."