Red States Continue Fight Over Pro-ESG Retirement Investing Rule

The US Labor Department’s ESG-friendly retirement investing rule violates the plain language of federal benefits law and was adopted through an arbitrary process, more than two dozen Republican state attorneys general told the Fifth Circuit.

The states on Thursday renewed their effort to have the appeals court 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 regulation is at odds with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s requirement that plan fiduciaries act “solely” and “for the exclusive purpose” of providing financial ...