Constitutional Law › Finance & Banking

Florida to Government: Your Lien Doesn't Foreclose This Old Mortgage

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that cities cannot create ordinances that subject prior recorded mortgages to their subsequently recorded county or governmental liens, because it conflicts with Florida's state statutes on...more

More than 50 parties file recourse proceedings in the Cyprus Supreme Court

As noted in our previous update, several clients have considered legal challenges to the new laws based on the resolution measures agreed by the Eurogroup and the Republic of Cyprus. These resolution measures on Bank of...more

Supreme Court Settles Fifth Amendment Required Records Issue in Context of Offshore Bank Accounts

On May 13, 2013, the Supreme Court denied a taxpayer’s petition for certiorari regarding the Seventh Circuit’s August 27, 2012, decision applying the Required Records Exception to override the taxpayer’s Fifth Amendment...more

New York State Court Dismisses RMBS Putback Action Against Nomura As Time-Barred

On May 10, Justice Sherwood of the Supreme Court of the State of New York dismissed on statute of limitations grounds an RMBS putback action brought against Nomura Credit & Capital, Inc. (Nomura)....more

Court Prohibits Bond Expenditure on Stadium Lighting Because Lighting Was Not Specifically Listed as Contemplated Project

The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, recently held that school district bond revenues could not be spent on stadium lighting where the bond proposition did not specifically list field lighting as part of...more

Further Setback for the CFPB Director’s Authority?

A split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a decision yesterday holding that a “recess” appointment to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was unconstitutional and invalid. NLRB v. New Vista...more

Employment And Labor Law Alert: Minnesota's Same-Sex Marriage Law: Effects On Employers

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013, Governor Dayton signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota (H.F. 1054 and S.F. 925), effective August 1, 2013....more

Bitcoin And The Corporations Code

I’ve been seeing an increasing number of references to Bitcoin and other forms of virtual or crypto currencies in the news. For example, Jeffrey Sparshott and Robin Sidel of the Wall Street Journal reported last week that...more

Court of Appeal Narrowly Reads School Bond Measure Language In Siding with Taxpayer Group’s Challenge To High School Stadium...

The California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, recently held that school district bond revenues could not be spent on stadium lighting where the bond proposition did not specifically list field lighting as part of...more

Court Explicates Scope of Usury Exemption For Real Estate Brokers

Artistotle didn’t think much of the idea of paying interest: (“As this is so, usury is most reasonably hated, because its gain comes from money itself and not from that for the sake of which money was invented. For...more

Court Holds That Statute Of Limitations Applies To Section 50(a)(6) Constitutional Claims

In Priester v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., homeowners sued for declaratory relief against their lender claiming that the lien on their home was void under the Texas Constitution. No. 12-40032, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 3097 (5th...more

House Committee Refuses To Allow CFPB Director To Appear

On April 22, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) sent letters to CFPB Director Richard Cordray and CFPB General Counsel Meredith Fuchs stating that the House Financial Services Committee cannot...more

S&C's Cohen: Brown-Vitter Punishes Banks For Being Big  [Video]

May 3 (Bloomberg Law) -- Rodge Cohen, partner at Sullivan & Cromwell who represents the nation's largest banks, talks with Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia about the concept of Too Big To Fail and a recent proposal from Senators...more

Cohen: Cyprus Is Not A Template For Future Restructurings [Video]

May 3 (Bloomberg Law) -- Rodge Cohen, partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, tells Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia why the recent bailout of Cyprus's banking sector was a unique situation and not necessarily a template for dealing with...more

Obama Administration Seeks Supreme Court Review Of Recess Appointment Decision

On April 25, the DOJ and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) filed a petition seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of the D.C. Circuit Court’s January 25, 2013 decision invalidating the appointment of three NLRB members....more

NY Appellate Court Holds CIFG and Syncora Lack Standing in $1.8 Billion MBS Suit

On April 25, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court affirmed an order barring monoline insurers CIFG and Syncora from suing GreenPoint Mortgage Funding for alleged violations of...more

As the CFPB Turns … And Other Consumer Financial Services News

In this week’s episode of As the CFPB Turns questions remain regarding Director(?) Richard Cordray’s constitutional authority to act as the Director of the CFPB. House Financial Services Committee Chairman, Jeb Hensarling,...more

Illinois Supreme Court Intervenes in Politically Charged State Pension Battle

Earlier this month, the Illinois Supreme Court accepted its first direct appeal in over three years, agreeing to wade into the politically charged battle over state employee pension rights. The Court ordered the consolidated...more

Harold C. Wallace v. Midwest Financial & Mortgage Services Inc., et al

Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals re: Summary Judgment Reversed for Appraisal Fraud

A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 23 reversed an award of summary judgment to a mortgage lender, a mortgage brokerage firm and its principals after finding that an appraisal that inflated the value of a...more

Mortgagee and Mortgagor Standing and the Servicemembers’ Civil Relief Act

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in HSBC Bank USA, N.A., Trustee v. Jodi B. Matt, No. 11101 (Jan. 14, 2013), recently clarified the issue of standing for both plaintiffs and defendants in actions under the...more

"No State Income Tax" Constitutional Amendment to be Submitted to Tennessee Voters in November 2014

On April 8, 2013, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed Senate Joint Resolution 1 by a vote of 80-8, giving final approval to a proposed constitutional amendment to ban a state income tax in Tennessee on payroll and...more

Second Circuit Allows FHFA MBS Suits To Proceed

On April 5, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s partial denial of a financial institution’s motion to dismiss on standing and timeliness grounds a suit brought by the FHFA. Fed. Hous....more

Cyprus: To Litigate or Not to Litigate?

Harneys’ Cyprus Banking Group is closely monitoring a legal challenge to the bail-out legislation which is currently before the Cyprus courts....more

Konczal: Dodd-Frank Reforms Get Roughed Up in Court [Video]

April 11 (Bloomberg Law) -- Mike Konczal, fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and contributor to Bloomberg View, talks with Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia about how the implementation of the financial reform laws in Dodd-Frank...more

Congressional Research Service issues two reports on Canning decision

The D.C. Circuit’s January 2013 decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB is the subject of two recently-issued reports by the Congressional Research Service. The decision held that President Obama’s recess appointments of three...more