U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk upheld the Biden administration’s Labor Department rule allowing the use of ESG investment considerations in ERISA-governed retirement plans for a second time. The decision again rejected the legal challenge from 26 Republican attorneys general.

Kacsmaryk’s decision upheld the Biden administration’s Labor Department rule without relying on Chevron deference, which was the legal basis of the original ruling.

Kacsmaryk first ruled in favor of the ESG regulation in September 2023. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals instructed him to reconsider the case in July 2024 after the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturned the legal precedent known as Chevron deference.

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