Dean Roger Dennis offered insights about a federal appeals court ruling issued on July 22 that struck down a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation designed to give shareholders more say in corporate-board elections.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously rejected the rule, finding the SEC failed to adequately assess its potential economic effects.

The decision was a big win for corporations, which filed a suit opposing the rule.

The New York Times on July 22 quoted Dennis as saying the level of detail the court requires in the SEC’s economic analysis “is a stealth way of telling them that they don’t have the right to regulate it.”

The agency “really could be tied up in knots trying to dot all the ‘i’s and cross all the ‘t’s,” he said in an interview that appeared in the July 22 Washington Post.