Nasdaq files to withdraw mandate on ‘diverse’ board directors after court defeat
The Nasdaq Stock Market has moved to rescind its rule requiring companies to have a certain number of female and minority board directors. This is the latest blow to corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, as the rule was defeated in court…
The rule was approved by the SEC in 2021, but promptly challenged by the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment and the National Center for Public Policy Research.
A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit sided with the SEC in 2023, but the full court vacated the decision on a 9-8 vote, calling the board diversity proposal “far removed” from the law’s principles of just and equitable trade…
Peggy Little, senior litigator for New Civil Liberties Alliance, who argued the case before the appeals court on behalf of the NCPPR, said the ruling means that companies “can just continue to hire who they think is best qualied to sit on their boards of directors.”
“They can still advertise the diversity of their board. Nothing stops them from doing that.ey’re just not mandated to meet these quotas anymore,” NCLA litigation counsel Sheng Li said in a Jan. 12 video explaining the decision. “Different companies can have dierent strategies, and we have a free market for that.”
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January 22, 2025
Originally Published in The Washington Times