Dr Nathan
@nathan.butnotdetroit.com
389 followers 576 following 415 posts
He/Him. Physics PhD. Patent agent. Bibliophile. Utahn. Negotiating with religion and history. I mostly post (and occasionally vent) about US politics, Utah politics, Mormonism, and occasionally patent law. Profile pic by @mae-bee-cringe.bsky.social
![Nelson relayed to the Republican chief executive that last week he was in China, where the LDS apostle heard talk about what “a wonderful job President Trump had done.”
Trump returned the compliment, calling Nelson a “great heart surgeon; one of the best in the world.”
“He [Nelson] decided to help even more people,” Trump noted, by giving up a distinguished medical career to become a global religious leader.
Nelson, 93, is next in line to lead the nearly 16 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ka4np7dct545cr6p7trq2cus/bafkreiczqkmo6mz5l6urp4hrhgkhvc3uqgl5i5tusvklfpknchh5uvvalu)
![Proposal No. 6
Shareholder Proposal
Apple has been advised that the National Center for Public Policy Research intends to submit the following proposal at the Annual
Meeting.
Request to Cease DEI Efforts
SUPPORTING STATEMENT:
Last year, the US Supreme Court ruled in SFFA v. Harvard that discriminating on the basis of race in college admissions violates the
equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. As a result, the legality of corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs was called into question and 13 Attorneys General warned that SFFA implicated corporate DEI programs.
This year, those implications widened when the Supreme Court ruled in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis that Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act protected against discriminatory job transfers. The ruling also lowered the bar for employees to successfully sue their
employers for discrimination, and is therefore likely to lead to an increase in discrimination claims.
Since SFFA, a number of DEI-related lawsuits have been filed. Starbucks was successfully sued for discrimination by an employee for
25.6 million, and the risk of being sued for such discrimination is rising.
Sensibly, many major companies have responded by rolling back their DEI commitments and laying off DEI departments. Alphabet and Meta cut DEI staff and DEI-related investments; and Microsoft and Zoom laid off their entire DEI teams. Since Muldrow, John Deere publicly halted DEI-related policies after Tractor Supply explicitly stated that it “eliminate[d] DEI roles and retire[d] our current DEI goals;” Lowe’s and Ford ended their participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality (CEI); Harley Davidson ceased its DEI efforts; and Jack Daniels ended both its DEI efforts and CEI participation.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ka4np7dct545cr6p7trq2cus/bafkreiehz6qarnfg5qwv5ainq7q7qos3vmifrmgkcbf7qju4bxwkvqq7aq)
![The proponent professes concern about legal and financial risks to the Company and its shareholders associated with the diversity initiatives.
The supporting statement demonstrates that it is the proponent and others that are responsible for inflicting burdens on companies with their
challenges to longstanding diversity programs. The proponent's broader agenda is not reducing risk for the Company but abolition of diversity
initiatives. A 2023 federal district court decision, in a case brought by the proponent, noted that the proponent had "published a document called
'Balancing the Boardroom 2022,' which describes its shareholder activism as 'fighting back' against 'the evils of woke politicized capital and
companies.' [The proponent went] on to describe 'CEOs and other corporate executives who are most woke and most hard-left political in their
management of their corporations' as 'inimical to the Republic and its blessings of liberty' and 'committed to critical race theory and the socialist
foundations of woke' or 'shameless monsters who are willing to sacrifice our future for their comforts.'" National Center for Public Policy
Research v. Schultz, E.D. WA. (Sept. 11, 2023). And the proponent's efforts to demonstrate retrenchment on the part of companies are
misleading, at best. For example, the assertion that "Microsoft laid off an entire a [sic] DEI team" is simply wrong. It was later reported that
Microsoft stated that the two positions eliminated were redundant roles on its events team and that Microsoft’s diversity and inclusion
commitments remain unchanged, according to Jeff Jones, a Microsoft spokesperson: “Our focus on diversity and inclusion is unwavering and we
are holding firm on our expectations, prioritizing accountability, and continuing to focus on this work.” Colvin, Caroline. Amid DEI cuts, Microsoft
works to distinguish itself from those responding to ‘woke’ backlash. HR Dive, July 24, 2024.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ka4np7dct545cr6p7trq2cus/bafkreifegpgqpjzojrbtducqpeoz3bawmxkuwtk5xgazokthakwvu5vgka)
