SEC Rule Changes Force Investors to Hold Fire

NEW YORK, NY — Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) announced earlier this week that it has filed a lawsuit against Axon Enterprise, Inc. (AXON) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The suit seeks to prevent AXON from excluding NCF’s shareholder proposal requesting greater transparency around the Company’s political spending. This filing by […]

As many of us are aware, in late 2025 the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance announced it was withdrawing from its role of providing staff guidance for companies seeking relief from a potential SEC enforcement action. For decades, companies sought that relief by filing a “No Action” letter with the staff, and asking for assurance […]

The recent announcement by the SECʼs Division of Corporation Finance that its staff will not, during the 2026 proxy season, “… respond to no-action requests related to any basis for exclusion other than 14a-8(i)(1)” leaves both companies and investors in uncertain, uncharted waters. The lack of staff input deprives companies and proponents of an orderly […]

Late last week, the SECʼs Division of Corporation Finance updated its Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations to advise that, going forward, the staff will object to using the SECʼs EDGAR filing platform to file Rule 14a-2(b) Notices of Exempt Solicitation by any shareholder holding less than $5 million in shares of the company to which the […]

The recent announcement by the SECʼs Division of Corporation Finance that its staff will not, during the 2026 proxy season, “… respond to no-action requests related to any basis for exclusion other than 14a-8(i)(1)” leaves both companies and investors in uncertain, uncharted waters. The lack of staff input deprives companies and proponents of an orderly […]

Authors Sehr Khaliq is the Director of Program Evaluation, and Timothy Smith is the Senior Policy Advisor at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). This post is based on their ICCR report. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander[i] recently urged three of the city’s pension funds to drop BlackRock, Fidelity, and PanAgora because of “inadequate” […]

On January 7, 2026, ICCR filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in its challenge against Texas statute SB 2337. ICCR’s suit, filed in federal court in November 2025 and joined by United Church Funds and Ceres, focused on a newly-adopted law that imposes unprecedented and burdensome unconstitutional obligations on ICCR and similarly-situated organizations. ICCR’s argument […]

Request comes amid growing public alarm about corporate consolidation in the healthcare sector. New York, NY, December 2025 — A coalition of faith- and values-based investors has filed a new shareholder resolution calling on UnitedHealth Group Inc. (“UNH”) to publish a report analyzing and describing the healthcare consequences of its corporate acquisition strategy. The request […]

The SEC’s recent announcement that the agency will be stepping back from responding to most No Action requests by companies this year is disturbing and disappointing. SEC leadership appears to be using the excuse of the government shutdown to give companies an open invitation to exclude any or all shareholder proposals from their proxies for […]