A Texas state senator voiced support for a recent suit challenging Texas law that boycotts BlackRock and many other investment firms, calling the law’s hypocrisy “galling.”
"Texas is a state that prides itself on limited government as well as belief in markets," Texas State Senator Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, said during a press call Sept. 18 regarding the lawsuit. The call was hosted by Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman.
“You cannot be for the free flow of capital only when you like where it’s flowing,” Johnson said. “You cannot be for freedom of speech only when you like what they’re saying, and you cannot claim to have respect for business judgment only when you like their decisions.”
On Aug. 29, the American Sustainable Business Council sued Texas officials, alleging violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
The suit challenged Texas Senate Bill 13 (“SB 13”), which "bars state public entities from investing and contracting with companies on the basis of the companies’ actual or perceived political views regarding fossil fuels,” and named Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as defendants.
In August 2022, Hegar unveiled his initial list of financial companies that boycott energy companies.
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, made the initial list. Hegar publishes and maintains a list of companies and investment funds that he considers to engage in boycotts of the oil and gas industry. Currently Hegar has more than a dozen firms listed as offenders, most recently adding NatWest Group. He also includes several hundred individual funds.
SB 13 is also embarrassing for Texas internationally, Senator Johnson said.
There are "financial entities all over the globe who are wondering what on earth we’re doing in Texas,” Johnson said. “That affects people’s interest in doing business with Texas.”
A spokesman for Comptroller Hegar’s office pointed to a statement he issued on Aug. 29 in response to the lawsuit.
“The plaintiff has filed a purported First Amendment lawsuit that seeks to undermine state sovereignty and force the state of Texas and Texas taxpayers to invest their own money in a manner inconsistent with their values and detrimental to their own economic well-being,” Hegar said in the statement. “That is absurd.”
