Iowa v. SEC

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted new rules that require publicly traded companies to disclose to investors certain climate-related information, including risks that have materially impacted or are reasonably likely to impact the company. Numerous states and industry petitioners challenged the rule, and the cases were consolidated in the Eighth Circuit.

Public Citizen filed an amicus brief supporting the SEC’s rules and addressing two legal issues raised by the challengers. First, our brief explains that the court should not apply the so-called major questions doctrine to determine the SEC’s authority to adopt the climate-risk disclosure rules because the SEC has long required publicly traded companies to disclose information material to investors. Second, the brief explains that the required disclosures satisfy the First Amendment standard that applies to commercial speech and refutes the challengers’ arguments that the rule should be subject to more onerous First Amendment scrutiny.