CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading a 16-state coalition in pushing back against a Biden administration initiative that would require companies to make climate change disclosures that aren't related to financial performance.
It's a move Morrisey says would serve a political agenda while decimating freedom of speech.
In comments filed June 14 to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler, Morrisey expressed concerns that the proposed climate change disclosures are unnecessary from a market protection standpoint, particularly as the market is already responding to investors’ interest in such topics in other forums.
“The Commission has an important and difficult mandate with respect to safeguarding public trading, but it is hard to see how it can legally, constitutionally, and reasonably assume a leading role when it comes to climate change,” Morrisey said. “The status quo’s voluntary approach may fail to satisfy the desires of at least some socially conscious, would-be investors, but companies are well positioned to decide whether and how to satisfy the market’s evolving demands, for both customers and investors.”
Morrisey says responding to a supposed public demand for information about public companies’ climate measures is not a sufficient government interest to compel speech and is a violation of the First Amendment.
To pass constitutional muster, the coalition says speech regulation must advance a constitutionally sufficient government interest, must be adequately related to advancing that end and may be required to use the least restrictive means.
In March, Morrisey also wrote to SEC Acting Chairwoman Allison Lee detailing similar concerns with the disclosure initiative.
The West Virginia-led comments were joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.