(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) America First Legal, a well-known conservative legal group, has announced a lawsuit against Target and its board of directors.
According to a press release on Tuesday, AFL’s legal action stemmed from the company’s controversial full-fledged support of radical left-wing ideology on gender.
The lawsuit, filed with support from co-counsels Boyden Gray PLLC and Lawson Huck Gonzalez PLLC, is on behalf of shareholder Brian Craig. It alleged that Target’s embrace of Environmental, Social, and Governance and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives have resulted in substantial losses exceeding $12 billion.
AFL said these left-wing initiatives touched on contentious issues that deserved careful consideration. An AFL press release explained, “In its 2022 and 2023 Proxy Statements, Target assured shareholders and investors that the Board was monitoring social and political issues and risks arising from the company’s ESG and DEI mandates.”
AFL argued that Target prioritized the interests of leftist stakeholders while neglecting the potential concerns of customers and shareholders.
The legal group put it this way, “[M]anagement was only concerned with satisfying its leftist ‘stakeholders,’ disregarding the possibility that customers and shareholders might hold different perspectives.”
The lawsuit brought attention to Target’s polarizing “Pride” marketing campaign in May 2023. This campaign drew criticism for its focus on radical gender and transgender ideology aimed at children.
The campaign included “tucker-friendly” bathing suits for children, which reportedly led to a significant stock value drop of $12 billion, which AFL deemed the largest decline in stock price in the past two decades.
In the damning lawsuit, AFL also highlighted Target’s boycott of a North Carolina law aimed at preventing biological males from using women’s bathrooms.
Gene Hamilton, AFL’s vice president and general counsel, emphasized the key point of the lawsuit. He underscored the alleged inconsistency between Target’s public statements and its actions.
“Target failed in its obligation to its shareholders by making statements that led them to believe that political and social risks were being evaluated,” Hamilton said, “when, in reality, Target’s Board and Management were primarily focused on satisfying the preferences of various metrics advocated by left-wing ‘stakeholders.’”
