Washington D.C. will face drastic change in January. The SEC’s Climate-related Disclosure Rules already had an uphill battle in the 8th Circuit and the changing political regime all but guarantees its demise. However, that doesn’t mean its time to stop the train – climate reporting may still be on its way from the states, specifically California. Two of California’s Climate-related disclosure laws SB 253 and SB 261 are working their way through the courts, and recently won a preliminary victory when the court denied a Motion for Summary Judgement filed by the Plaintiffs on First Amendment grounds. Cooley writes in a recent memo that:
“Ultimately, the Court found that there were ‘genuine disputes of material fact that preclude it from granting summary judgment at this stage.’ Accordingly, while the Court did not ‘rule on whether the State is entitled to specific discovery,’ the Court ruled only ‘that further development of the facts are needed for it to evaluate Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment,’ granting California’s motion to defer or deny Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.”
In reality, this is a small victory. It only applies to the Plaintiff’s claims that SB 253 and SB 261 compel speech, and it is not dispositive on that issue. The Plaintiffs still have many arguments left including preclusion, limitations on extraterritorial regulation, and violation of the dormant commerce clause. These claims face a Motion to Dismiss that is still pending in the Federal District Court for the Central District of California. The California litigation is really just getting started, but the laws survive for now and the court has declined to stay the laws while they are being litigated, meaning that compliance dates will likely arrive before the litigation is complete.
Our members can learn more about California’s Climate laws here.
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