WASHINGTON DC – Today, America First Legal (AFL), with co-counsel Boyden Gray PLLC and Lawson Huck Gonzalez PLLC, sued Target Corporation and its Board of Directors on behalf of Brian Craig, a shareholder of Target, for betraying Target’s customers and shareholders with misleading representations about its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandates ), and to cause Target shareholders to lose billions of dollars.
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. However, management only cared if their left-wing “stakeholders” were satisfied, disregarding the possibility that their customers and shareholders might feel differently. Thus, in May 2023, Target embraced the radical transgender agenda with its child- and family-themed “Pride” marketing and sales campaign: The corporation’s famous “Pride” collection included clothing for young children with LGBT themed rainbow Mickey Mouse symbols. bibs and bodysuits for babies, and swimwear for “transgender women”. this predictably caused a collapse of more than $12 billion in the value of stocks, the greater drop in share price in more than 20 years.
This isn’t the first time Target management has used shareholder funds to virtue-signal to left-wing extremists without regard for the consequences to the corporation’s brand, customers and shareholders. For example, after the North Carolina legislature passed a law in 2016 to keep biological males out of bathrooms used by women and girls, Target posted a “Manifesto of Pride” i welcome its employees and shoppers to use bathrooms and changing rooms “corresponding to their gender identities.” After a massive backlash, CEO Brian Cornell admitted this to Target staff “Target did not adequately assess risk” and that “the backlash was self-inflicted,” but instead of apologizing, publicly defended the decision: “We took a stand and will continue to embrace our belief in diversity and inclusion, as important as it is to our company.”
In addition, Target management has adopted “diversity of suppliers,” including the majority of collections to be made by “LGBTQIA+ creators and brands” in 2022, and which will address the hateful and illegal practice of race-based hiring by adopting a plan increase its “company-wide representation of black team members by 20 percent.”
Target’s management has misled investors, assuring them that the corporation monitors social and political issues and risks to protect shareholders, when behind closed doors it works for its hard-left extremist “stakeholders” in cost of its customers and shareholders. For too long, big corporations have done this he recklessly went left and “bend the knee” to serve the awakened elites. Today, however, America First Legal says enough is enough.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, Vice President of Legal and General Counsel of America First:
“Federal law requires publicly traded corporations to provide certain information to shareholders in their proxy statements that will enable them to make informed decisions. As alleged in our complaint, Target breached its duty to its shareholders by making statements that led them to believe that political and social risks were being assessed, when in reality, all that Target’s Board and Management cared about was how effectively they were meeting the wishes of various advanced metrics by left-wing stakeholders. In doing so, they caused our client to lose a substantial amount of money, and we will vindicate his rights in federal court,” said Gene Hamilton.
Read the lawsuit here.
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