Federal Judge Reed O’Connor has approved a schedule for the court to assess the merits of Consensys’ lawsuit against the SEC and its commissioners. In a filing on July 1, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ordered SEC and Consensys lawyers to submit opening and opposition briefs by September and November, respectively. The SEC was also given a 28-day extension to respond to the complaint.
As part of the timeline set by Judge O’Connor, all five SEC commissioners and the regulator must file their responses by July 29, with reply briefs due by Nov. 26. Bill Hughes, Consensys’ senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters, anticipated a ruling on the case around December.
Consensys filed its lawsuit against the SEC in April, accusing the regulator of orchestrating a campaign to control the future of cryptocurrency. The company claimed that the SEC’s enforcement actions aimed at regulating Ether (ETH) as a security were part of this campaign. In June, Consensys reported that the commission had dropped its investigation into ETH. However, the SEC filed its own lawsuit against the software firm days later, alleging that it had been operating as an unregistered broker.
The civil case has attracted the attention of many legal experts in the cryptocurrency field due to its potential implications for the SEC’s authority. The commission has several pending lawsuits against crypto firms, including Coinbase, Binance, and Ripple. Commissioner Mark Uyeda, who is also named in the Consensys lawsuit, criticized the SEC’s approach to crypto in a statement on July 1 that was unrelated to the case.
The SEC and Consensys lawsuits were filed before the U.S. Supreme Court issued two opinions that could impact how the commission handles enforcement cases. One opinion stated that defendants in SEC civil cases concerning securities fraud were entitled to a jury trial, while the other would require courts to determine whether a federal agency like the SEC “acted within its statutory authority.”