Shareholder Power More Necessary than Ever
[Image alt text: As You Sow® banner with logo, image of mountains and a lake, and text saying: The nation’s leading non-profit shareholder advocate, with a 30+ year track record of changing corporations for good. Plus a special stamp saying UPDATE.] < [link removed] > Dear John,
With all the attention to the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday on presidential immunity, you may have missed the other shocking rulings it made over the last few days. On Thursday, Friday, and yesterday – Monday – the Roberts Court dealt body blows to regulatory protections in this country, including overturning 1984’s Chevron v NRDC decision. Chevron is likely the most frequently cited case in American administrative law, with tens of thousands of citations.
The Roberts Court has thrown out decades of settled law, precedent, and common sense concerning how — or now, if — government agencies can regulate corporations to protect Americans’ well-being.
Its rulings make As You Sow’s work with corporations even more necessary.
In three days, the Supreme Court all but eliminated agencies’ ability to enforce existing regulations, opened the floodgates for a tsunami of lawsuits targeting even the most longstanding regulations, and severely undermined agencies’ authority to make or defend new regulations. These decisions have “the potential to devastate the functioning of the federal government,” as Justice Jackson noted in a dissent.
The decisions strike what may be a catastrophic blow against the ability of the federal government to create and enforce regulations that protect Americans from environmental degradation, financial fraud, and unsafe food; that impact the drugs we take, the roads we travel, the hospitals we visit, the safety of airplanes and the internet; and a vast array of other issues that affect our daily lives and the stability of our economy. The Roberts Court is promoting the interests of corporations that choose to pollute, cut corners, and externalize costs at the expense of every American’s health, freedom, and prosperity.
As the Supreme Court systematically destroys regulatory guardrails, the strongest force remaining to hold corporate power in check is shareholders.
For more details, see our press release < [link removed] > and the P.S. below, or (and!) reach out to me.
We welcome your support in holding corporations accountable.
With hope for a livable future, [Image alt text: Photo of Jenna Belisle] Danielle Fugere
President and Chief Counsel
P.S. Want some details? In Friday’s blockbuster Loper Bright ruling, the Court overruled the Chevron deference doctrine and 40 years of precedent finding that the government agencies charged with making regulations for highly technical issue areas should be given deference when interpreting ambiguities in the laws they are charged with enforcing. By most accounts, Chevron has been cited over 19,000 times. Now, any ambiguities in laws must be resolved by a judge with no particular issue-area or scientific expertise. Opponents of regulations protecting human and environmental health are already preparing a flood of attacks on agency authority to make such rules.
In yesterday’s Corner Post decision, the Court altered a longstanding rule that created a statute of limitations governing lawsuits against federal agencies, opening the door for a flood of litigation challenging even the most well-established regulations.
Thursday’s Jarkesy ruling essentially eliminates agencies’ ability to enforce their own regulations, even when specifically authorized to do so by Congress. In that case, the Court held that when an agency seeks a civil penalty for violation of a law, the agency cannot use an administrative tribunal, but must take a violator to federal court for a jury trial. That means no enforcement where Congress did not give the agency the ability to sue in court and a vastly reduced ability to enforce the law due to agency resource limitations, the enormous expense and time commitment of jury trials, and the already backlogged federal court system. This ruling alone may effectively end agencies’ ability to enforce the law.
These rulings are not the end of the story. We are strengthened in our resolve to hold corporations accountable.
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As You Sow < [link removed] > is the nation’s leading shareholder representative, with a 30+ year track record promoting environmental and social corporate responsibility and advancing values-aligned investing. Its issue areas include climate change, ocean plastics, toxins in the food system, biodiversity loss, racial injustice, lack of workplace diversity, and excessive executive compensation. See As You Sow’s shareholder resolution tracker < [link removed] > . < [link removed] > < [link removed] >
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