Nasdaq Pushes Race, Sex Discrimination

LTP News Sharing:

Nasdaq, the company overseeing the nation’s second-largest stock market, wants to do something “quite unconstitutional” that “should leave all rational people reeling away in disgust.”

And the government – namely, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – might just allow it to happen, despite the federal agency having an easy way to stop this blatant form of discrimination.

In a Townhall commentary, Free Enterprise Project (FEP) Deputy Director Scott Shepard discusses Nasdaq’s intention to effectively require the businesses that trade on its exchange to set aside seats on their boards of directors specifically for women and select special interest/minority groups.

Why? Because.

As Scott points out, “[c]orporations have no business involving themselves in such details of their employees’ lives, and will be legally constrained from making further inquiries in many cases.” This is important since the personal matter of sexual preference is one of the favored groups Nasdaq is trying to seat. There is also the thorny question of what constitutes membership in a particular racial group – particularly for those of mixed-race heritage.

“But there are special characteristics of the Nasdaq power grab that bear special consideration,” Scott adds, “as they appear to serve as a template (or at least a prime example) upon which the larger attempt on the life of the Republic is likely to proceed.”

To be fair, companies can try to opt-out of Nasdaq’s de facto quota system. But they do so at their peril. Scott warns that “Nasdaq is proposing the tactics of the mob” to get its way.

A company that doesn’t want to participate in Nasdaq’s boardroom politicization scheme can do so as long as it explains why. This could open up a Pandora’s box of outrage directed at the scofflaws:

[O]nce the declaration and explanation become public, then the woke mobs will descend on the company to attack. Any sensible declaration such as “we do not believe that directors should be chosen on the basis of irrelevant surface characteristics, but instead on merit,” will be treated as direct evidence of sexism and racism, when in fact it is exactly the reverse.

In fact, the way things have developed so far this year, any attempt by the company to explain and defend such a position publicly might well be treated as “hate speech,” hate now defined by the modern-day communications firms as “saying anything that might hinder our takeover of public discourse in aid of the woke agenda,” and pulled down and banned.

The SEC is accepting comments from the public on whether it should allow Nasdaq to impose this diversity requirement on the companies trading with it. FEP’s comments are available by clicking here. Rules for submitting public comments are found here (reference File Number SR- NASDAQ-2020-081).

To read all of Scott’s commentary – “Nasdaq Adopts Mob-Style Tactics to Push Woke Agenda” – at Townhall’s website, click here.