The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit dismissed a challenge (see previous coverage) to the MSRB's "pay-to-play" rule.
Writing for the Court, Circuit Judge Karen Moore dismissed the challenge as lacking standing, finding that there was no evidence of concrete injury to any of the allegedly affected parties. The petitioners (State Republican party groups from Tennessee, New York and Georgia) argued that the 2016 amendments to MSRB Rule G-37 (which expand the MSRB's pay to play rules to cover Municipal Advisors) "limit[ed] the ability of municipal securities dealers, financial professionals, and now municipal advisors and municipal advisor professionals to make political contributions."
Judge Moore wrote that the petitioners could not sufficiently demonstrate actual harm, specifying that the record did not identify "a single individual whom the 2016 Amendments have prevented from donating to Petitioners or contributing to the Petitioners' candidates."
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