Doe v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 21-1097 (D.C. Cir. 2022)
Annotate this CaseThe DC Circuit denied petitions for review of petitioners' applications for whistleblower awards resulting from a successful SEC enforcement action. The court concluded that the SEC properly denied petitioners' award applications under its reasonable and longstanding interpretation of the relevant regulation, which sets forth three scenarios allowing for the issuance of a whistleblower award—none of which encompasses the additional scenario proposed by petitioners. In this case, the SEC's interpretation reflects it authoritative and official position; the interpretation implicates the Commission's substantive expertise in implementing the whistleblower program; and the SEC's reading reflects its fair and considered judgment. Therefore, given that the text of Rule 21F-4(c) is genuinely ambiguous, the SEC’s interpretation is entitled to deference pursuant to the interpretive guideposts announced by the Supreme Court in Kisor v. Wilkie, 139 S. Ct. 2400, 2415–16 (2019). The court also concluded that petitioners' additional arguments are either forfeited or meritless.
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