In a recent tweet, Bill Morgan, an XRP enthusiast and attorney, shared his thoughts on the likelihood of the SEC appealing the Ripple lawsuit decision.
Hinting that his confidence in an appeal has waned, Morgan stated, "I am increasingly less confident that the SEC will appeal the Ripple summary judgment decision if merely legal considerations are influencing the decision whether to appeal."
I am increasingly less confident that the SEC will appeal the Ripple summary judgement decision if merely legal considerations are influencing the decision whether to appeal.I pointed out in a post yesterday that Judge Orrick in the Kraken case preferred the approach of Judge… https://t.co/YEsWoKaBvg
— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) August 28, 2024
Morgan explained that if there is no clear legal error in the judgment, and if the SEC can easily distinguish the Ripple case due to its specific and narrow facts, there may be little reason for the agency to pursue an appeal.
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He noted that initially, he was 80-20% in favor of an appeal but has since shifted to 55-45%, indicating his growing belief that the SEC might choose not to appeal.
Legal error ruled out
Morgan noted that in the Kraken case, Judge Orrick preferred the approach of Judge Jackson in the Binance case and Judge Torres in the Ripple case, which distinguishes between primary and secondary market transactions, over Judge Rakoff in the Terraform case, which did not make such a distinction.
Some commentators believe that the judge's reasoning in the Terraform case reflected poorly on the reasoning of Judge Torres concerning programmatic sales.
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However, Morgan deduces that the positive comments about aspects of Judge Torres’ reasoning in the Ripple summary judgment decision in the Kraken and Binance lawsuits seem to assuage doubts about the correctness of her decision raised by some critics.
Judge Orrick in the Kraken case pointed out that Judge Torres’ decision was "carefully constrained to the facts of the case and predicated on findings from a fully developed record" and was consistent in approach with the Ninth Circuit’s holding in the Hocking case.
Morgan doubts if the SEC would appeal the Ripple decision since there is no obvious legal error and the case is narrowly confined to its facts. He believes that the SEC will only file an appeal if non-legal considerations are influencing the decision to appeal.
