Three years' worth of gnashing of teeth regarding the Department of Labor's proposed fiduciary rule reform may come to naught depending on the outcome of a trial now taking place in a Dallas courtroom. Early reports of hearings that took place Thursday seem to suggest that Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn may be taking a dim view (see here and here, for instance) of the government's authority to impose the rule and could decide to vacate. I don't believe court observers' reading of tea leaves is any more sufficient to warrant such a conclusion than was the evidence that all but determined a Hillary Clinton victor earlier this month.
Even if Lynn, a district court judge appointed by Bill Clinton, sides with the financial services industry against the government, that does not mean an end to the fiduciary rule, but more likely the start of a new hearing before the…