A U.S. appeals court declared on Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission cannot force public companies to declare whether their products may contain "conflict minerals" from a war-torn part of Africa because it violates their free speech.  The 2-1 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit hands a partial victory to the three corporate trade groups...

[The SEC rule] requires manufacturers to conduct due diligence on their supply chains to try and track the origins of minerals including tantalum, tin, gold or tungsten to determine if they may have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The measure is strongly backed by human rights groups who say such disclosures can help consumers and investors who wish to avoid any minerals that might have helped fund rebel groups.  But trade groups including the National Association of Manufacturers argued the rule was costly, burdensome and forced companies to publicly wear a scarlet letter if in fact the minerals did originate in a conflict zone.

Tuesday's ruling still largely upholds the majority of the SEC's conflict minerals rules, which went into effect last year.  Companies still must conduct due diligence and file reports to the SEC with their findings, but they are not required to state whether or not the products are deemed "conflict free."