On June 11, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear biotechnology company Amgen Inc.’s appeal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s decision to affirm class certification in the securities fraud class action Amgen v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds , No. 11-1085, 2012 U.S. LEXIS 4366. In this appeal, the court will finally address important issues regarding the applicability of the fraud-on-the-market presumption of reliance adopted by the court in its 1988 seminal decision, Basic v. Levinson , 485 U.S. 224 (1988) issues the court declined to answer one year ago in Erica P. John Fund v. Halliburton , 131 S. Ct. 2179, 2187 (2011). Specifically, the court will focus on two questions:
1. Whether, in a misrepresentation case under SEC Rule 10b-5, the district court must require proof of materiality before certifying a plaintiff class based on the fraud-on-the-market theory.
