NCLA Asks Eighth Circuit to Vacate SEC’s Unconstitutional New Climate Disclosure Rules
2024年6月17日 - 10:34PM
The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a joint opening brief in
National Center for Public Policy Research v. SEC, urging the U.S.
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside new SEC rules
requiring public companies to make extensive climate-related
disclosures. NCLA’s challenge to the SEC rules is consolidated with
U.S. Chamber of Commerce, et al. v. SEC, in which Gibson Dunn &
Crutcher LLP represents the petitioners. Representing the National
Center for Public Policy Research in a brief alongside the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, Texas Association of Business, and Longview
Chamber of Commerce, NCLA demands an end to SEC’s unconstitutional
pursuit of climate activism at the cost of civil liberties.
SEC’s new rules mandate disclosures that include
forward-looking estimates of business risks, reports of
greenhouse-gas emissions made by each company and the company’s
utility provider, and descriptions of any steps the company takes
to mitigate climate-related risks. The rules would force companies
to make a variety of forward-looking guesses, including about how
the government will regulate, how consumers will respond to
hypothetical future government regulations, and how courts will
rule with respect to those theoretical regulations.
SEC lacks legal authority to issue these rules,
which are an attempt to make climate policy by way of mandated
financial disclosures. In doing so, the agency did not comply with
the requirements for issuing rules. The new rules also violate the
First Amendment, which limits compelled disclosures to “purely
factual and uncontroversial information.” These costly requirements
also damage the economy—cutting against SEC’s assigned mission,
which is to protect investors, foster fair financial markets, and
facilitate capital formation. The Eighth Circuit must recognize
that SEC simply does not have the power to regulate the environment
by dressing up environmental policy in the guise of financial
regulation.
NCLA released the following statements:
“The court should set aside these rules and require the SEC to
stay in its lane, which is limited to regulation of specific
financial matters involving the securities markets.”
—Andrew Morris, Senior Litigation Counsel,
NCLA
“Congress created the SEC to regulate securities
transactions, not to address climate change nor any other
environmental issue. The agency once again has stepped way outside
its statutory lane, this time to compel costly climate-related
disclosures that have nothing to do with fair and honest
transactions in securities.”—Sheng Li, Litigation Counsel,
NCLA
For more information visit the case page
here.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights
group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to
protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the
Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other
pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and
federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that
will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
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Ruslan Moldovanov
New Civil Liberties Alliance
202-869-5237
ruslan.moldovanov@ncla.legal