Red States See Support in Appeal Challenging Pro-ESG 401(k) Rule

Republican states challenging the Labor Department’s ESG-friendly retirement investing rule in the Fifth Circuit received support from organizations and individuals arguing that political activism shouldn’t get in the way of workers’ retirement savings.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week received a handful of amicus briefs backing an effort by more than two dozen Republican state attorneys general to vacate a 2022 regulation giving retirement plan fiduciaries greater flexibility to consider “non-pecuniary” factors like environmental, social, and corporate governance goals as a tiebreaker when selecting investments. The states say this violates the Employee Retirement Income Security ...