Court Opinion

ID: 9471670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:38:18.564064+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:31.588496
License: Public Domain

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Although, ordinarily, I would be content simply to concur in Judge Oakes’ thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion, the strong protest registered in Judge Brieant’s dissent prompts me to pen this brief concurring opinion.
At the outset, I agree with Judge Oakes that, if a doctor must be licensed to write prescriptions and a lawyer to argue appeals, there is no reason why, in the public interest, an investment adviser should not be required to register before he can give investment advice. Where the standard for the granting of a license is “public interest, convenience, or necessity,” the denial of a license on that ground, if provided for by statute, is not a denial of free speech. See National Broadcasting Co. v. United States, 319 U.S. 190, 226-27, 63 S.Ct. 997, 1014, 87 L.Ed. 1344 (1943). It is now settled beyond dispute that, in performing its assigned duties, the SEC acts as a “statutory guardian charged with safeguarding the public interest in enforcing the securities laws.” SEC v. Management Dynamics, Inc., 515 F.2d 801, 808 (2d Cir.1975). .
Congress was sufficiently concerned about violations of the Investment Advisers Act that it provided severe criminal penalties for willful violations thereof. 15 U.S.C. § 80b-17. The fact that the prohibited acts involve speech does not make them any the less unlawful. “The use of a printed message to a bank teller requesting money coupled with a threat of violence, the placing of a false representation in a written contract, the forging of a check, and the false statement to a government official, are all familiar acts which constitute crimes despite the use of speech as an instrumentality for the commission thereof.” United States v. Barnett, 667 F.2d 835, 842 (9th Cir.1982).
If the giving of investment advice by an unregistered investment adviser is unlawful, a court, after proper hearing, should be able to prohibit it, especially where the prohibited acts constitute a continuation of conduct already found to be unlawful. See Village of Hoffman Estates v. The Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc., 455 U.S. 489, 496, 102 S.Ct. 1186 (1982); Central Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. P.S.C., 447 U.S. 557, 559, 563-64, 100 S.Ct. 2343, 2350 (1980); Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm. on Human Relations, 413 U.S. 376, 389-90, 93 S.Ct. 2553, 2560-2561, 37 L.Ed.2d 669 (1973). A good illustration of the exercise of this *903constitutional power can be found in the use of injunctions to restrain unlawful trade practices. See National Soc. of Prof. Engineers v. United States, 435 U.S. 679, 697, 98 S.Ct. 1355, 1368, 55 L.Ed.2d 637 (1978). As the Court said in Lorain Journal Co. v. United States, 342 U.S. 143, 156, 72 S.Ct. 181, 187-188, 96 L.Ed. 162 (1951), “Injunctive relief under § 4 of the Sherman Act is as appropriate a means of enforcing the Act against newspapers as it is against others.” In short, if, as the dissent agrees, “Lowe may not practice as ... an investment adviser,” he should not be permitted to give investment advice.
Judge Brieant’s concern about the terms of the injunction to be issued by the district court is, I suggest, premature and fails to take into account the skill and ingenuity of Judge Brieant’s colleagues in the district court. The activities of an investment adviser which Lowe unlawfully has been carrying on are described in 15 U.S.C. § 80b-2(a)(ll). Although, as a general rule, a district court should not content itself with issuing an “obey the law” injunction, it quite properly may frame the injunction in terms of the specific statutory provision which the court concludes has been violated. SEC v. Manor Nursing Centers, Inc., 458 F.2d 1082, 1103 (2d Cir.1972); United States v. Miller, 588 F.2d 1256, 1261 (9th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 947, 99 S.Ct. 1426, 59 L.Ed.2d 636 (1979). I have no doubt that, upon remand, the district court can frame an injunction so that Mr. Lowe “will know what the court intends to forbid.”