Sox First

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the centerpiece of the sarbanes-oxley legislation, is under serious legal threat, reports Bloomberg's Jane Bryant Quinn.

The legal challenge, brought on by a small accounting firm in Nevada and backed by the conservative free market champions at the Competitive Enterprise Institute focuses around the question of whether the president should appoint board members rather than the Securities and Exchange Commission.

And, reports Quinn, there is one view that the lawsuit will be successful, spelling the end of Sarbanes-Oxley. If the case does get through, there will be an appeal. During which time Congress will bring in changes to prop up the PCAOB and neutralize the legal challenge.

• PCAOB alert on backdating
• Constitutional challenge thrown out of court.
• PCAOB action
• SEC-PCAOB arm wrestle on accounting rules
• Ready for the fight: PCAOB seeks a bigger handout
• SEC moves on PCAOB lawsuit
• Stop tweaking SOX, says PCAOB
• Michael Oxley: Sarbox sucks? Blame the PCAOB
• SEC-PCAOB arm wrestle
• PCAOB slates audits of small firms