Manufacturers Join Case Contesting SEC Clout Over Proxy Ballots

The Fifth Circuit has let the National Association of Manufacturers step into a lawsuit challenging the SEC’s power to sway what shareholder proposals make it onto proxy ballots for company annual meetings.

Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Thursday granted NAM’s motion to intervene in the case, brought last month by a conservative organization. It was filed after the SEC advised Kroger Co. that it could block the group’s proxy proposal from its upcoming annual meeting. The Securities and Exchange Commission has no authority to dictate which proxy ballot items investors ...