Lawyers debate Ripple case after SEC’s proposal to… Cryptocurrency scrgruppen

Cryptocurrency lawyers appear to be divided on the significance of Judge Analisa Torres’ recent court order, which rejected the SEC’s plan to file an interlocutory appeal against Ripple.

While many lawyers and commentators viewed the decision as a major win for Ripple in its case against the regulator, other legal experts urged the public to moderate their enthusiasm.

Judge Torres dismissed the SEC’s interlocutory appeal based on the grounds of her prior ruling that partially sided in favor of Ripple. She said this did not require issuing an order “containing a supervisory legal issue”, which is a prerequisite for approval of the interlocutory appeal.

BREAKING: Judge rejects SEC’s request to file an appeal against Ripple’s ruling

— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) October 3, 2023

An interlocutory appeal is simply an appeal filed during a trial — in this case, the ongoing proceedings by the SEC against Ripple, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and its CEO Christian Larsen.

Bill Hughes, an attorney at blockchain company ConsenSys, told Cointelegraph that the SEC’s appeal denial was something he had expected, explaining that it is not unusual for such an appeal to be carried out during this part of a trial.

On the other hand, cryptocurrency lawyer Jeremy Hogan was more confident that the decision was a “disaster” for the SEC. But Hughes disagreed.

The SEC’s motion for interlocutory appeal was denied.

Which means the case will either go to trial in April or disappear.

This allowed the judge to better explain parts of her ruling, making it more difficult for the SEC to win an appeal.

Disaster for the agency. https://t.co/y1Gz8LolrG pic.twitter.com/hkktKMD4Ut

– Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) October 4, 2023

“The court says so [Torres’] The ruling is limited to this case. “Frankly, it’s OK for the SEC if they don’t mind one case not telling you much about the next,” Hughes explained.

Likewise, Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, warned cryptocurrency supporters to temper their enthusiasm about the ruling, explaining that the decision was not an all-out loss for the SEC.

On October 3 mail On X (formerly known as Twitter), Shapiro said that although the SEC’s appeal was denied in this case, the SEC could still appeal the case later.

Don’t get too excited about the SEC’s denial of Ripple’s introductory appeal… it doesn’t mean the SEC has “lost its appeal”… it just means that if the SEC wants to appeal, it has to appeal everything at once after that. The trial…

There are still some useful clarifications of Torres’s opinion

– Gabriel Chabert0 (@lex_node) October 3, 2023

“This does not mean that the SEC ‘lost its appeal’… it means that if the SEC wants to appeal, it should appeal everything at once after trial,” he said.

However, says Scott Chamberlain, an entrepreneurship fellow at the Australian National University School of Law to explainThe decision may be more significant for Ripple than others want to give it credit for.

“Yes, the SEC can appeal later, but they are stuck [a] “A poor factual record makes a successful appeal much more difficult,” Chamberlain wrote.

Related: Ripple receives official approval for a payments license in Singapore

Chamberlain added that any future appeal from the committee would likely be heard in the High Court as there are no major legal questions remaining to decide. All that remains is “the difficult but ultimately mundane task of applying known law to a complex matrix of facts that does not support the SEC’s claim.”

“The law hasn’t changed. The SEC failed to make its case. Now it has to push things uphill with a pointed stick if it wants to win.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also added his opinion to the mix, taking to social media to express his excitement.

The SEC’s motion to file an interlocutory appeal was denied. I’m not a lawyer but apparently the court just told the SEC: You asked me to apply the “amateur” test, I did, and like it or not, I lost. https://t.co/0E4MS0iuRY pic.twitter.com/bkhCpum17n

– Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 4, 2023

As set forth in the court’s recent order, trial in this matter is currently scheduled for April 23, 2024. If the SEC wishes to file an appeal, it will need to do so after the conclusion of the trial.

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