Anti-ESG forces have opened a new line of attack in their quest to get corporate America to deemphasize priorities such as diversity and support for LGBTQ communities by suing retailing giant Target, one of the highest-profile advocates of such causes.
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The Target suit, filed this week in federal court in Florida, differs in that it parses years of the companies’ Securities and Exchange filings to highlight what it deems to be false or misleading statements—in particular assertions that CEO Brian Cornell and the board were exercising oversight over the full range of ESG-related risks, and that their pursuit of ESG goals was aligned with enhancing shareholder value.
In fact, according to the suit, the CEO and board have adopted a “divisive and extreme” ESG agenda that is completely out of step with its core customer base of working families and has resulted in millions of dollars in lost sales and incinerated billions of dollars in shareholder value.
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