As the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues to await a ruling from Judge Analisa Torres of the United States Southern District Court of New York, Ripple’s chief legal officer has spoken out with a striking statement on Twitter.
The belligerent statement comes at a time when the SEC is conducting a supposed “Operation Choke Point 2.0” against the crypto industry, and also faces the first day of trial in two weeks in the litigation over a Bitcoin spot ETF with Grayscale.
Ripple’s Stuart Alderoty stated that the SEC has lost a total of four of the five cases that made it to the Supreme Court:
The SEC has lost 4 of its last 5 cases in the Supreme Court, thanks to the few that had the courage and resources to fight back against the SEC’s bullying and clinging to stretch legal positions that were not faithful to the law.
Is Ripple Willing To Fight In Supreme Court?
The statement is causing a stir in the XRP community in that the reference for the statement is not entirely clear. Does Alderoty imply that Ripple is willing to go to the Supreme Court in case of an unfavorable outcome of the court case? Or is Alderoty just pointing out that the SEC often has a poor case record against strong opponents who oppose the agency’s overreach?
XRP community lawyer John E. Deaton referred to Alderoty’s statement. Particularly noteworthy is the last sentence, in which Deaton states that the summary judgment brief could already be a preliminary to an appeal brief:
I have no doubt Ripple will win and the current Supreme Court will shut down the SEC’s gross overreach. The West Virginia vs EPA case is all you need to read to agree with me. Ripple’s summary judgment brief is already an extremely well written appellate brief.
In the case referenced by Deaton, the Supreme Court ruled that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have congressional authority to limit emissions from existing power plants by shifting generation to cleaner sources.
Deaton is likely alluding to the fact that the SEC is exceeding its authority with the XRP securities lawsuit and that only Congress can provide regulatory clarity. The Supreme Court has the authority to require this.
At this point, however, there is no clear sign from a Ripple executive that the company is ready to continue its fight in the Supreme Court. In recent months, several Ripple execs have repeatedly expressed optimism about a favorable outcome of the court case.
At press time, XRP traded at $0.3923, seeing a rejection at the key resistance at $0.4083 yesterday.
Featured image from Adam Szuscik / Unsplash, Chart from TradingView.com