The presiding judge in the Ripple case made a ruling that one Ripple community lawyer calls "a very big win for Ripple".
In 2020 the SEC filed a suit against Ripple and executives Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen for allegedly selling unregistered securities.
The ruling judge Sarah Netburn denied the SEC's request to reconsider shielding documents under privilege related to a June, 2018 speech made by Ripple's then-director William Hinman. Hinman said Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities within this speech.
Judge Netburn told the SEC that it shouldn't contradict itself in trying to flip-flop on its assertions. She wrote
"The SEC seeks to have it both ways, but the Speech was either intended to reflect agency policy or it was not. Having insisted that it reflected Hinman's personal views, the SEC cannot now reject its own position."
Summing up the critical aspects of Judge Netburn's rejection to reconsider, James K. Filan, who is a community defense lawyer with an extensive case file of financial and SEC cases tweeted today:
This is a very big win for Ripple.
— James K. Filan 🇺🇸🇮🇪90k+ (beware of imposters) (@FilanLaw) April 11, 2022
John E. Deaton, another Ripple community lawyer and founder of Crypto-Law.us also tweeted to his 191,000 followers that "the SEC is now in a hurt locker", following Judge Netburn's ruling.
This is not just a win for @Ripple and #XRPHolders, but for the judicial system. After the March 2021 hearing, I said we were lucky to get Judge Netburn. Some of you disagree, but I still believe it. The SEC is now officially in a hurt locker. https://t.co/MuSC8ORrd2
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) April 11, 2022
The SEC now has two weeks to appeal the decision.
A lot of people within the crypto industry are closely monitoring the proceedings of this case as its outcome could spell out the future of SEC filings against crypto companies for the sales of unregistered securities.