As I have documented on this site, conservative advocacy and legal groups have been pursuing an aggressive ESG backlash campaign. Among other things, these groups’ efforts have caused several high-profile companies to walk back their DEI initiatives. These groups have also pushed for state-level anti-ESG legislation and have also even pursued anti-ESG litigation. The litigation results have been mixed at best, as noted for example here. However, in the ESG-backlash securities lawsuit filed by a conservative advocacy group against Target in the wake of a consumer boycott following the company’s LGBT “Pride Month” campaign, a federal district court has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss. As discussed below, there are several interesting features of the court’s ruling. A copy of the Court’s December 4, 2024, opinion can be found here.Continue Reading ESG Backlash Securities Suit Against Target Survives Dismissal Motion
For some time now, many commentators, including me, have been predicting that cybersecurity-related litigation could become an important part of the D&O litigation environment. And that may yet happen. For now, however, the results in the recent cybersecurity-related cases have been, from the plaintiffs’ perspective, not particularly promising. On July 7, 2016, in the latest of these cases to hit the skids, District of Minnesota Judge Paul Magnuson, in reliance on the report of the special litigation committee appointed to investigate the claims and in the absence of opposition from the plaintiff, granted the motions of the special litigation committee and of the defendants and dismissed the consolidated cybersecurity-related derivative litigation that had been filed against Target Corporation’s board. As discussed below, the plaintiffs’ track record in this type of litigation has been poor, which does raise the question whether this type of litigation will become a significant phenomenon. A copy of Judge Magnuson’s order in the Target Corp. case can be found