In the ongoing legal battle between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple, a federal judge has denied the SEC’s request to appeal its earlier loss. District Judge Analisa Torres issued a brief ruling on Tuesday, stating that the SEC had not met the legal burden to show substantial grounds for differences of opinion.
Pro-XRP lawyer Fred Rispoli commented on the ruling, noting that while the July 13 victory was significant, this latest development is also a positive outcome for Ripple.
Judge Torres’ ruling seemed to express her frustration with the SEC’s approach to the case, with Rispoli interpreting it as a display of contempt for the SEC’s disrespect and misuse of her time. According to Rispoli, the SEC’s position took a turn for the worse during the Hinman Emails saga when it adopted seemingly contradictory stances, ultimately proving detrimental to its case.
One key takeaway from Judge Torres’ order, as pointed out by Rispoli, was a footnote highlighting the SEC’s presentation of shifting and inconsistent arguments regarding its legal theory about “Other Distributions.” According to Rispoli, this observation was an unusual departure from Judge Torres’ typical approach but was deemed necessary to underscore the SEC’s inconsistency.
“The SEC may seek an emergency writ to 2nd Circuit, but that will be denied. It would waste time and money, so I cannot put that at 0% probability. The order’s many references to facts yet-to-be-decided were saturated with implications by J. Torres that any arguments by SEC will be greeted from a starting point of being non-credible,” he wrote on X.
While the SEC may explore options such as seeking an emergency writ to the 2nd Circuit, Rispoli believes such a move is unlikely to succeed and would only waste time and resources. The judge’s repeated references to undecided facts in the case suggest a skepticism towards the SEC’s credibility in future arguments.
