Iowa v. Securities & Exchange Commission

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an administrative stay of the rule on March 15 in the case brought by two oilfield services companies; the Fifth Circuit then dissolved the stay after the Eighth Circuit was selected as the venue for the litigation.

Ten petitions for review were filed in six circuit courts of appeal after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule requiring disclosures of climate-related information. Challenges to the final rule were filed by energy companies, business and industry groups, states, environmental organizations, and an organization that owns shares in companies subject to the rule and that frequently advocates to oppose efforts to advance resolutions related to climate change. The SEC submitted a notice of multicircuit petitions for review to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which randomly selected the Eighth Circuit as the venue in which to consolidate the nine petitions.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that the petitions challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) climate change disclosure rules be held in abeyance until the SEC either reconsiders the rules through a notice-and-comment rulemaking or renews its defense of the rules. The Eighth Circuit noted that the rules had been stayed (by the SEC) and found that an abeyance would not cause material prejudice to the petitioners. The Eighth Circuit did not accede to the SEC’s July 23, 2025 request that the court decide the case. The Eighth Circuit’s order stated that it was “the agency’s responsibility to determine whether its Final Rules will be rescinded, repealed, modified, or defended in litigation.”

State intervenors filed a response to the SEC's status report asking that the Eighth Circuit continue to hold the case in abeyance until the SEC “clearly indicates what it intends to do with the Rules, including whether it will rescind the Rules if the Court upholds them.”

On July 23, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a status report in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals proceedings challenging the SEC’s 2024 climate change disclosure rules. In response to questions posed by the court in an April 24, 2025 order regarding the SEC’s intentions with respect to the rules, the SEC said it did not intend to review or reconsider the rules “at this time” and requested that the Eighth Circuit end the abeyance and decide the case. The SEC stated that if the court upheld the rules, “any reconsideration of them would be subject to Commission deliberation and vote of its members, and the Commission cannot prejudge that action.” (The SEC also stated that prejudging “would not be appropriate.”) In addition, the SEC stated that because the court’s decision “would inform the scope and need for such action,” a decision by the court would “promote an efficient resolution to the dispute between the parties.” The SEC contended that a decision by the court would not be advisory because “[a]n important, live controversy of national policy with critical economic and policy ramifications” remained and that the court’s decision could “conclusively resolve the dispute about the Commission’s power to adopt the mandatory disclosure obligations on climate risk in the Rules.”