KANSAS — U.S. District Court Judge Holly L. Teeter issued a preliminary injunction on June 24, 2026, halting Kansas' Proxy Advisory Transparency Act (SB 375). The injunction occurred just before the law's scheduled effective date of July 1, 2026.

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis had filed separate lawsuits against the Kansas law. They argued that SB 375 violated their First Amendment rights through viewpoint discrimination.

Teeter, an appointee of President Donald Trump, stated that Kansas' SB 375 "regulates speech based on whether the expressed opinion is for or against company management." She found that the law did not satisfy strict scrutiny. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said he "values First Amendment rights and would not argue that SB 375 satisfies strict scrutiny should the Court agree with Plaintiffs that SB 375 discriminates based on viewpoint."

The bill would have mandated that proxy advisors disclose instances where their voting recommendations differed from company management's position without a supporting written financial analysis. Kansas lawmakers passed SB 375 in April 2026, overriding Governor Laura Kelly's veto.

ISS and Glass Lewis, which collectively represent over 90% of the proxy advisory market, indicated the ruling supports First Amendment principles. Glass Lewis stated the rulings "safeguard core First Amendment principles by rejecting speaker and viewpoint discrimination and ensure we can continue to deliver the objective research that our clients have come to expect."

The legal campaign by ISS and Glass Lewis began in July 2025 with a lawsuit regarding Texas's SB 833. The two firms also challenged a similar law in Kentucky. On December 11, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to expand oversight of ISS and Glass Lewis and to revisit proxy-advisor rules concerning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) matters.