Without taking a position regarding the merits of any of the petitions for exemption that seven aerial photo and video production companies submitted to the FAA last month, Husch Blackwell LLP voiced its support for the exemption process to permit commercial operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). In response to the FAA’s request for comment, Husch Blackwell noted in its submission (submitted by Co-Chairs of the firm’s UAS team Tom Gemmell and David Agee, with assistance by Amanda Tummons) to the FAA’s Notice that while there are legitimate concerns regarding the use of UAS, the technology is here to stay and it should be allowed when commercial businesses can demonstrate parameters to ensure safe operations.
Tom Gemmell
D.C. Circuit Finds Conflicts Minerals Rules’ Disclosure Requirement Unconstitutional; Affirms District Court’s Decisions on De Minimis Exception, Scope of Application, and Due-Diligence Trigger
By Tom Gemmell & Mary Anne O'Connell on
Yesterday a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals held the Conflict Minerals Rules’ requirement that a company that issues stock disclose if its products are not “DRC conflict free” violated the First Amendment.
In an effort to de-finance parties engaged in violence and human-rights abuses related to the extraction of gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten—so-called “conflict minerals”—from Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congress, through rules promulgated by the Securities Exchange Commission, required companies to disclose not “DRC conflict free” in reports filed with the SEC and on the company’s website if they determine upon due diligence that their products contain such minerals. On appeal of the district court’s ruling in National Association of Manufacturers v. Securities and Exchange Comm’n upholding the law, the Association challenged the SEC’s disclosure requirement as unconstitutionally compelling speech in violation of the First Amendment.