A federal appeals court has rejected a challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s influence over whether proposals on issues such as climate change ever make it to a shareholder vote.
By a 2-1 vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research, which sued the SEC for allowing grocery giant Kroger to block a shareholder proposal.
Kroger ultimately reversed itself and put the proposal up for a vote. The measure — which accused the company of having “kowtowed to leftwing social media criticism” — asked for a study to review how Kroger prevented discrimination against employees based on their ideology.
The measure garnered less than 2 percent of the votes cast, leading the 5th Circuit to note that “because the appeal is moot, we are unable to reach the merits of the center’s challenge.”
