THE BOTTOM LINE: Apple aims to block climate, rights proposals with quick use of SEC guidance.

While companies routinely seek permission to skip shareholder proposals, Apple’s application of the new SEC guidance shows how it could be used to ignore many investor proposals by claiming boards routinely review those areas, said Sanford Lewis, a Massachusetts attorney representing Apple shareholders who had filed two of the resolutions.

Were the SEC to side with Apple, “this would be an incredibly dangerous precedent that would essentially say a great many proposals could be omitted,” Lewis said.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment beyond its letters to the SEC.

An SEC spokeswoman declined to comment. Officials had previously said the new guidelines were only meant to improve the resolution process.

Often seen as distractions in the past, shareholder measures have taken on new significance as big asset managers increasingly back those on areas like climate change or board diversity.

This might appear to go against Apple’s corporate grain, but I can’t imagine it isn’t good for shareholders in at least some small way.