The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and shareholders are speaking out against politically-influenced debanking, which constitutes financial censorship.
ADF announced April 15 that it is backing a resolution that calls for longterm reforms to prevent any more politically-fueled targeting of U.S. Bank customers. “Politicized debanking was on the agenda at U.S. Bank’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday, as a proposal backed by Alliance Defending Freedom called on corporate leadership to provide transparency into the bank’s potentially discriminatory decision to abruptly close the long-held account of the Constitution Party of Idaho at the outset of last year’s election cycle,” ADF declared in a press release.
JPMorgan previously consented to enact policy changes to prevent political and religious debanking, ADF explained, and now the group is working to convince U.S. Bank to do the same. ADF acknowledged that shareholder support at U.S. Bank is not widespread for the policy proposal, and that investors like BlackRock and advisors like Institutional Shareholder Services oppose it. The final vote tally has yet to be released, however.
Indeed, the ADF-backed shareholder coalition is not without influence, as it represents over $250 billion in assets under management and has already filed 70 shareholder proposals at major corporations. These resulted in over 50 meetings with the various companies’ representatives, ADF stated. This has just in 2025 resulted in 13 policy and behavior changes at giant corporations that include Meta, Verizon, Chase, PepsiCo, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, Comcast and Morgan Stanley.
Thus, ADF remains hopeful. “No one should fear losing access to essential financial services because of their views,” declared ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President of Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco, explaining the proposal’s importance. “Politicized debanking is a direct assault on the fundamental freedoms of Americans, and big banks like U.S. Bank can no longer afford to participate in it. This shareholder resolution is a critical step toward holding U.S. Bank accountable and ensuring it respects the diverse perspectives of its customers and shareholders. We’re hopeful that today’s meeting leads to future engagement with U.S. Bank on this critical topic.”
Mike Ring, president of Old Glory Bank, bashed debanking in exclusive statements to MRC Free Speech America on Feb. 7. Democrats are ignoring the “debanking [of] industries, 2A, oil and gas, crypto and debanking individuals, and that's the worst,” he said. Ring cited previously debanked individuals who turned to Old Glory Bank instead: Trump’s Lawyer John Eastman and America’s Frontline Doctors founder Dr. Simone Gold.
Bank of America, which debanked Eastman in 2023, also applied the same treatment to independent journalist Radix Verum while the latter was filming a documentary on FBI abuses, as recorded in MRC’s unique CensorTrack database.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech and government be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for alternative viewpoints. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
