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ARTICLE · 28 APRIL 2025

Tennessee v. BlackRock: How This Case Informs How We Look Back And Look Ahead At ESG

Foley Hoag LLP
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Politicians in Republican-led states have painted a target on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles being employed as a metric for investments. About one year ago, in March 2023...

United StatesEnvironment
Matthew E. Miller
Matthew E. Miller
Jasmine Brown
Jasmine Brown
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Politicians in Republican-led states have painted a target on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles being employed as a metric for investments. About one year ago, in March 2023, twenty-one Republican Attorneys General sent a letter to asset managers, including BlackRock, Inc., asserting breaches of their fiduciary duties and violations of antitrust law as a result of the asset managers' ESG investing and participation in efforts to increase public company disclosure around the risks and impacts of climate change.

Whatever the effectiveness of the AG attacks related to ESG in the political arena (the consideration of which is beyond the scope of this article), a recent consumer protection action filed by one of those Attorneys General – Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti – against Blackrock suggests that actually asserting those fiduciary breaches and antitrust violations may not be viable as a legal matter.

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