In a powerful public statement, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told Americans that he is working to make his state a place where woke companies are unwelcome and zeroing in on ESG and DEI policies, describing them as discriminatory and putting Florida law firms on notice for pushing companies to adopt such policies.
For context, Uthmeier, one of the youngest attorney generals in Florida’s history, released his statement on April 15, 2025, less than two months after his first week in office. Since becoming Florida’s AG, Uthmeier has been working tirelessly to eliminate woke ideology from the state’s corporate sector, notably filing a lawsuit against Target on behalf of the Florida State Board of Administration due to the company’s efforts to sexualize children.
Beginning his statement, Uthmeier warned Florida’s business owners that they should be focused solely on commerce and not on leftist politics. He said, “If you have a fiduciary duty to the state of Florida, and we’re investing in you, and we’re looking out for the retirement of our state workers, we’re going to make sure that you get back to the business of doing business. Stay away from some of this dangerous politics.”
Continuing, Uthmeier provided background on his anti-woke initiative, explaining the rationale behind his decision to file a lawsuit against Target in February 2025, saying, “In my first week in office, we filed a lawsuit against Target based on some of the radical ideologies that they were pushing forward in their stores.”
Uthmeier went on to describe the impetus behind his Target lawsuit, which was the company’s decision to start offering clothes specifically for transgender children. He explained, “Many months ago, they rolled out a transgender children’s clothing line. And yes, companies have some free speech rights, but when you are a publicly traded company, you have fiduciary duties to shareholders.”
Moving on, Uthmeier condemned Target for getting mired in leftist politics instead of focusing on business, using their story as a cautionary tale. He said, “Here in Florida, our state pension fund that provides the retirements for our teachers and first responders took a massive hit when Target decided to engage in this social ideology. They faced a serious backlash and lost over $10 billion in value in ten days.”
Uthmeier continued by explaining how he intends to prevent companies like Target from prioritizing woke politics over Florida’s economy and the well-being of its taxpayers. He stated, “This isn’t right. We’re gonna hold companies like this accountable. We started a corporate accountability and oversight fund with over $20 million dollars that’s gonna make sure that we’re investing in businesses that are making money for the investors.”
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Uthmeier concluded by honing in on new restrictions that stop Florida lawyers from advancing unlawful ESG and DEI policies. He explained, “Many of these policies violate our civil rights laws in Florida. They are not reflective of equal justice under the law. In fact, they are discriminatory. So, we’ve put law firms on notice.”
Watch Attorney General Uthmeier’s statement:
Featured image credit: screenshot from the embedded video