- Gov. Jerry Brown signs into law California bill imposing minimum quota for women on corporate boards: “it’s very hard to see how this law could be upheld” [Emily Gold Waldman, PrawfsBlawg, earlier, more: Alison Somin, Federalist Society] “The passage of this law resulted in a significant decline in shareholder value for firms headquartered in California.” [Hwang et al. via Bainbridge]
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Martin Act, part umpteen: “New York Attorney General Overreaches in Climate-Change Complaint Against Exxon” [Merritt B. Fox, Columbia Blue Sky Blog]
- “Now he tells us! You’d think that maybe Bharara would have publicly acknowledged this ambiguity and haziness [in insider trading law] before bringing a series of cases that destroyed careers and imposed huge costs on the individuals who were accused.” [Ira Stoll]
- “Because [Florida agriculture commissioner-elect Nikki Fried] took donations from the medical marijuana industry, Wells Fargo and BB&T banks closed her campaign accounts briefly, citing policies against serving businesses related to marijuana, which is still prohibited under federal law.” [Lori Rozsa, Washington Post, Erin Dunne, Washington Examiner (“fix the marijuana banking mess”)]
- Survey: “Average cost of a settled merger-objection claim has increased 63% to $4.5 million over four years, with little benefit to shareholders” [Chubb] “Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform?” [Kevin LaCroix, D&O Diary on U.S. Chamber paper, and more on trends in Australia]
- “Congress Can’t Create an Independent and Unaccountable New Branch of Government” [Ilya Shapiro on Cato cert amicus in State National Bank of Big Spring v. Mnuchin, on constitutionality of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)]
Filed under: California, CFPB, corporate governance, Exxon, securities litigation
5 Comments
The calif women on boards law is unconstitutional for several reasons. First, if a corp is incorporated in another state, this law tramples on their bylaws. Second, board members are elected by shareholders and this violates that principle.
lawsuit from the non-binary crowd imminent….
Chief Justice Roberts, in the Supreme Court’s 2007 Parents Involved decision, stated: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
I’m certain that he would advocate substituting sex or gender for race.
Further to my comment, if we are going to impose quotas (which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional for college admissions) why not quotas for every minority? On a corp board of 8, how could you have perfect balance of male/female, black, white, hispanic, asian (oops, forgot that asians are “white”)? It is a step back from colorblind society
Re: Florida agriculture commissioner-elect Nikki Fried
Brick by brick the green wall is coming down. Florida is as likely a place as any to be next.
Did they hand her cash or a check? If a check, on what bank? If on their bank, wasn’t that still trafficking with drug related customers? And lastly, if they did not give her the money immediately and denied her access to it, wasn’t that theft?
Why only women? Approximately 60% of blind persons in the US are unemployed… I’m sure one or two would be glad to serve on the board of a company in Ca… Which is longhand for what about all the other minorities? Aren’t they sexist to just pick gender to do something about? Can they prove that no other protected class has issues with being represented equally on boards?
Don’t look at me like that, all I have ever asked for is the opportunity to prove that I can get the job done. And make your products usable if you want my business. Oh, and to make the baenebooks site as friendly and usable as it was, which they did, hurrah them, and yayme! I love to read and thank the congress back in the early 1900’s (iirc?), and publishers who have cooperated with letting blind folks read on specialized formats and electronically in the modern instance. It’s a great time to be blind, not that any time is a good time to be blind… There is just so much more opportunity, especially to read and learn, unless you’re berkeley.
😀