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Environmental Groups Voice Strong Opposition to Alito Nomination

Nine major environmental groups, along with the Endangered Species Coalition, are working actively to defeat the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito Jr. as a justice on the Supreme Court. The full Senate is expected to vote on the issue late next week or early the following week. With two crucial environmental cases on the high court’s docket this spring, the groups fear that Judge Alito’s history of negative rulings on environmental issues will tip the balance in the closely divided body, allowing irreparable harm to environmental protection. This opposition to Alito’s nomination marks the first time since 1987 that environmental organizations have opposed a Supreme Court nominee (Robert Bork, President Reagan’s choice, who was rejected by the Senate). Eight justices have been appointed since then. The urgency of this battle is underlined by two cases the court will decide by July, involving the constitutionality of the Clean Water Act. These cases have broader implications for the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws that protect the nation’s health and environment. Both cases were brought by industry groups seeking to establish that Congress lacks the authority, under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, to protect streams and tributaries that flow into larger bodies […]

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Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index Launched

Dow Jones Indexes and SAM Group today launched the world’s first index that merges Islamic investing principles and sustainability criteria by combining the methodology of the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. The Dow Jones Islamic Market Sustainability Index represents companies that are compatible with Islamic investment guidelines, while at the same time are determined to be corporate sustainability leaders. To be included in the index, companies must be components of both the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. Currently, 105 companies are included in the index and are thus suitable for investors who want to apply stringent Islamic screens as well as best-in-class sustainability criteria. Dow Jones Indexes launched its Islamic index family in 1999. Today, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index is used by asset managers in 16 countries for a variety of financial products that screen out activities that are incompatible with Islamic investment guidelines. Excluded from the index are stocks of companies in these lines of business: alcohol, tobacco, pork-related products, financial services, defense/weapons, and entertainment. Also excluded are companies that fail any of three financial ratios: total debt divided by trailing 12-month average market capitalization […]

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