Court Voids NASDAQ DEI Rules

Maybe we have seen peak DEI.

News:

A federal appeals court struck down Nasdaq (^IXIC) rules designed to encourage more diverse company boards, the latest defeat for DEI policies across corporate America.

The decision handed down by nine judges for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans concluded that the Securities and Exchange Commission should not have approved the Nasdaq rules in 2021.

These rules would have required the thousands of companies listed on the tech-heavy exchange to have at least one person who self-identified as female on their board, or explain why there was not one, along with at least one person who self-identified as either from a racial minority or as LGBTQ. ...

"We hold … that the diversity rules cannot be squared with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934," they said in the 9-8 ruling.

The SEC, they added, failed to establish that the diversity disclosure rules were related to the purpose of the Exchange Act — which "exists primarily to protect investors and the macroeconomy from speculative, manipulative, and fraudulent practices, and to promote competition in the market for securities transactions."

Christopher F. Rufo has suggestions for Trump to shut down DEI.