In the case of Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. John Gilbertson et al., 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to determine the appropriate statute of limitations for civil actions brought under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The court ruled in a five-to-four decision that such cases must be filed within one year after discovery of facts constituting violation and no later than three years after such violation took place. This ruling effectively overruled many lower courts which had previously applied state law statutes with longer time limits for filing these types of securities fraud claims.

In the dissenting opinion for Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. John Gilbertson et al., Justice Kennedy argued that the majority's decision to apply a federal statute of limitations to private civil actions under §10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act was an overreach and not in line with congressional intent. He contended that Congress did not intend for this uniform limitation period to be applied so broadly when it enacted §10(b). Instead, he believed that state law should govern these cases as they had done previously. Furthermore, he criticized the majority's retroactive application of their ruling which dismissed pending claims without warning or opportunity for plaintiffs to refile within new guidelines. This abrupt change in legal interpretation could undermine public confidence in judicial stability and fairness.