Target lawsuit signals new right-wing strategy to squeeze corporate America

A far-right group led by former Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller is suing Target over shareholder losses.

According to Miller's group, the losses are in connection with Pride Month promotions is part of a broader effort to give corporate America pause before supporting progressive causes, The Washington Post reports.

Miller’s America First Legal filed the lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Target misled investors when the shopping behemoth said it was monitoring financial risks associated with the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the report said.

Aaron Gregg and Jacob Bogage write for The Post: ”For America First Legal, the lawsuit represents a new strategy of seizing on investor losses to pressure corporations over political causes.”

“Miller’s legal group has put forward numerous complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, taking issue with various companies’ racial equity initiatives. The group has written to the EEOC urging investigations into allegedly discriminatory hiring practices at major corporations, including Starbucks, McDonald’s and the investment firm BlackRock.”

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Brian Craig, a Florida resident who is at the center of the lawsuit, in April 2022, paid around $50,000 for 216.450 shares of Target stock that, by June 14 of this year, plummeted to $28,896 in value, the suit says, is as a result of a backlash against the company over its Pride Month promotions, according to the report.

The lawsuit contends the company’s stock value fell as a “direct and predictable result of management’s calculated decisions to promote sexualized material to children,” referring to family-themed LGBTQ Pride items.

“These false and misleading statements [about Pride Month promotions] caused Target’s shareholders to unknowingly support Target’s Board and management in their misuse of investor funds to serve its divisive political and social goals―and ultimately lose billions,” the lawsuit alleges, according to the report.

But experts say Miller’s group faces an uphill battle proving that Pride Month affected Target’s stock price.

“It is extremely hard to quantify exactly what role the Pride Month backlash had on the stock price,” GlobalData managing director for retail Neil Saunders told The Post. “However, given that there is no data to suggest it had a tangible impact on Target’s sales, it seems highly unlikely that it was the primary cause, or even a major cause, of the decline.”

Miller, who as a Trump advisor was a leading voice behind the administration’s anti-immigration policies including the family separation initiative, has previously argued that white Americans are victims of racism and that the United States represents “the apex of achievement of Western civilization,” with “a heritage to be jealously guarded.”

Read the full article here.