ST. LOUIS, MO (June 24, 2024): Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) joined a coalition of organizations in an amicus brief before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging a new rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that will require corporations to include environmental impact information in their financial disclosures. Under the new rule, companies must report information including greenhouse gas emissions and the risks and effects that their operations will have on the environment.
Several states and interest groups are challenging the new rule, which not only circumvents separation of powers by ignoring Congress but also imposes extremely burdensome costs on companies across America.
As SLF and amici explain in their brief, the SEC is abusing its power to regulate financial disclosures to fulfill a political climate agenda. Worse, the SEC is run by unelected bureaucrats, so the American people are powerless to stop it through the electoral process. This is just another example of the Biden Administration flatly ignoring the Constitution and mobilizing the “fourth branch” of government—executive agencies—to do its bidding.
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