Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment v. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), calling on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to prohibit the SEC from forcing publicly traded companies to comply with arbitrary racial and gender quotas. 

“The Securities Exchange Acts are designed to ensure that investors have adequate information to make good financial investment decisions,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “And the SEC exists to implement those duly enacted laws, not to impose the morality of those running the agency at any given time.” 

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argues that the SEC mandate that all publicly traded companies must allocate two board seats based on race or gender identity is beyond what Congress authorized.

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UPDATE: On December 11, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the SEC cannot force publicly traded companies to comply with arbitrary racial and gender quotas, writing, “We hold, however, that the diversity rules cannot be squared with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”