To gut conflict minerals rule, trade associations turn to First Amendment

Whatever the individual motivations are for these companies, their recent initiatives are encouraging. Besides, if the court curtails the SEC’s ability to regulate conflict-free mineral disclosure, consumers may have more power to influence these companies to use conflict-free minerals than even Congress does. The more that end users demand humanely produced and sourced products, the more firms will have to respond.
In the end, to get across-the-board compliance from firms, it is essential to have SEC rules in place. In this regard, the trade associations’ compelled-speech argument in NAM v. SEC is troubling because it could allow big companies to hide from customers and investors the true nature of their business practices regarding conflict minerals as well as other human-rights issues. And taken to its logical extreme, the argument could hamper all sorts of securities regulations that require disclosures to the investing public.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/1/to-gut-conflict-mineralsruletradeunionsturntofirstamendment.html