Because the court ruled against the SEC on the Rule 10b-5 subsection b ruling, it vacated the penalties levied against Lorenzo by the SEC and sent the case back to the Commission to reconsider Lorenzo's punishment in light of the ruling. In his dissent, Judge Kavanaugh claimed that the majority opinion endorsed the SEC's efforts to "end-run the Supreme Court" by expanding primary liability for securities fraud. He stated the conduct described in Lorenzo's case may have been considered 'aiding and abetting' but that Lorenzo should not be considered a primary violator for passing along misstatements from his boss. He emphasized the distinction between primary liability and aiding and abetting, noting that prior Supreme Court cases (2008's "Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc." and 1994's "Central Bank of Denver, N.A. v. First Interstate Bank of Denver, N.A.") had limited the ability of private plaintiffs to file suit against secondary actors (accused aiders and abettors) in a fraud case. Kavanaugh argued that the Court of Appeals's opinion here would have the effect of converting these secondary actors into primary violators through "scheme" liability, exposing them to additional liability (contradicting the Supreme Court's past rulings). The DC Circuit's decision exacerbated a circuit split regarding this issue. Since 2005, the Second, Eighth, and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal had each held that fraudulent misstatements could not by themselves create "scheme" liability while the Eleventh Circuit had been more open to the idea. Lorenzo appealed the decision to the Supreme Court in January 2018. In June 2018, the Supreme Court granted his writ of certiorari agreeing to hear the case. The case was argued on December 3, 2018. Robert Heim, an attorney with the firm of Meyers & Heim LLP, argued the case on behalf of Lorenzo. Assistant Solicitor General Christopher Michel argued the case on behalf of the United States government. Because he was on the DC Circuit panel which heard the original case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh recused himself from participating in this case. The Supreme Court affirmed the DC Circuit's decision to impose "scheme" liability on Lorenzo. Writing for a 6-2 majority, Justice Stephen Breyer found that the language in subsections a and c of Rule 10b-5 were sufficiently broad to encompass Lorenzo's dissemination of false information with the intent to defraud. The majority opinion held that merely disseminating false statements was not enough to create "scheme" liability; it argued that the fraudulent course of conduct (planning the debenture sales, development of the fraud scheme, etc.) was part of the pattern of conduct needed to impose primary liability.