Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a federal district court decision in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday this week in which “U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled . . . in a 68-page opinion that the ratings of certain securities -- those that were distributed to a limited number of investors -- don't deserve the same free-speech protection as more general ratings of corporate bonds that were widely disseminated.” According to the article, “[t]he judge's decision is one of the first to interpret the extent to which the firms can expect First Amendment protection for their ratings of certain securities, which have been the focus of much litigation since the credit crisis.”

Tags: Securities, Federal Constitutional Law

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today about buyers of condominiums in hotels filing lawsuits in which they allege violations of securities laws by condo-hotel developers. At issue is whether the sale of a unit involves the sale of a “security.”

Tags: Securities, Real Estate, Condominium