Powerful business lobbyists are asking the US Supreme Court to use the First Amendment to block California from requiring corporations to publish their emissions data.
Pro-industry trade groups and their lawyers argue that new transparency and disclosure requirements violate businesses’ free speech rights.
An emergency appeal filed in recent weeks by the US and California Chambers of Commerce, as well as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Los Angeles County Business Federation, the Central Valley Business Federation, and the Western Growers Association, accuses the Golden State of waging an “open campaign to force companies into the public debate on climate issues” and “pressure [firms] to alter their behavior.”
The letter’s authors complain that lawmakers are attempting to “make sure that the public actually knows who’s green and who isn’t.”
California’s new laws, set to go into effect January 1, 2026, will require larger companies operating in the state to publicly state their “climate-related financial risk,” as well as issue emissions records and public assessments of their environmental impacts.
This follows a growing legal trend that sees businesses fight transparency rules by citing the Constitution’s “compelled speech” protections. Corporations claim that the First Amendment shields them from being forced to speak out on issues and have used the principle to fight emissions disclosures, drug price caps, social media reforms, and a suite of other consumer and public health protections.
Businesses say transparency rules, like California’s, illegally force them into speaking out on what they consider politically controversial topics, essentially arguing that the disclosure rules put words in their mouth.
Experts are warning that if the courts agree with these firms, the effects could be devastating to wide-ranging regulatory efforts.
“Anything can be political and controversial because science doesn’t deal in…
Auteur: Veronica Riccobene
