"[1]: 2 For publicly held corporations in the United States, the submission and handling of resolutions is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
For example, resolutions were effective at raising public awareness and thereby pressuring corporate management about investments in apartheid South Africa, nuclear power, and labor disputes.
A shareholder resolution to protest napalm manufacturer Dow Chemical resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court case called SEC v. MEDICAL COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, 404 U.S. 403 (1972).
The court decided that the case was moot due to Dow's agreeing to include the resolution on its proxy statement.
"The philosophy of our times, I think, requires that such [404 U.S. 403, 410] enterprises be held to a higher standard than that of the "morals of the marketplace" which exalts a single-minded, myopic determination to maximize profits as the traditional be-all and end-all of corporate concern.