184
Opinion of the Court
causes of action contained in the 1934 Act—and thus would have imposed aiding and abetting liability in § 10(b) actions had it enacted a private § 10(b) right of action. As we have explained, however, none of the express private causes of action in the Act imposes aiding and abetting liability, and there is no evidence that Congress intended that liability for the express causes of action.
Even assuming, moreover, a deeply rooted background of aiding and abetting tort liability, it does not follow that Congress intended to apply that kind of liability to the private causes of action in the securities Acts. Cf. Mertens, 508 U. S., at 254 (omission of knowing participation liability in ERISA "appears all the more deliberate in light of the fact that 'knowing participation' liability on the part of both cotrustees and third persons was well established under the common law of trusts"). In addition, Congress did not overlook secondary liability when it created the private rights of action in the 1934 Act. Section 20 of the 1934 Act imposes liability on "controlling person[s]"—persons who "contro[l] any person liable under any provision of this chapter or of any rule or regulation thereunder." 15 U. S. C. § 78t(a). This suggests that "[w]hen Congress wished to create such [secondary] liability, it had little trouble doing so." Pinter v. Dahl, 486 U. S., at 650; cf. Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington, 442 U. S. 560, 572 (1979) ("Obviously, then, when Congress wished to provide a private damages remedy, it knew how to do so and did so expressly"); see also Fischel, 69 Calif. L. Rev., at 96-98. Aiding and abetting is "a method by which courts create secondary liability" in persons other than the violator of the statute. Pinter v. Dahl, supra, at 648, n. 24. The fact that Congress chose to impose some forms of secondary liability, but not others, indicates a deliberate congressional choice with which the courts should not interfere.
We note that the 1929 Uniform Sale of Securities Act contained a private aiding and abetting cause of action. And at
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