Kennedy, Cotton to fight collection of American investors’ data with amicus brief

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking and Judiciary Committees, joined Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 10 other colleagues in filing an amicus brief in American Securities Association and Citadel Securities LLC v. SEC, a case in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT).

The SEC's CAT is a vast surveillance tool that tracks and collects all customer and order information for equity securities and listed options, including data that might be considered personal identifiable information.

Congress did not authorize the CAT, leaving investors to pay higher costs for one of the largest regulatory surveillance systems in the world.

"Americans invest in the stock market to save for retirement, send their kids to college and build a little security. They did not sign up for Washington to track every trade. The Biden-era SEC pushed the Consolidated Audit Trail without clear authority from Congress, put Americans' private financial data at risk, and tried to make investors pay for it. The SEC should use its current review to end this unconstitutional plan, protect Americans from hackers and keep Washington out of Main Street's pockets," said Kennedy.

"The SEC gave itself a surveillance database on the backs of American investors and never bothered to ask Congress. That's not how the Constitution works. It's time to end it," said Cotton.

Background:

• In Nov. 2023, Kennedy penned an op-ed highlighting concerns regarding the SEC's move to store investors' personally identifiable information through the CAT.
• In July 2023 and again in February 2025, Kennedy introduced the Protecting Investors' Personally Identifiable Information Act to protect information that could reveal the identity of American investors.

Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) signed the brief alongside eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The full amicus brief is available here.