Supreme Court Opens Door For State Suits Against National Banks

Morrison & Foerster LLP
Contact

The Supreme Court today issued its decision in Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association and Office of the Comptroller of Currency, No. 08-453.

Summary

The Court ruled that the National Bank Act's grant of visitorial exclusivity to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) did not prohibit lawsuits filed by state governments seeking to enforce state laws, even if those suits involve the lending practices of national banks.

The Court unanimously held, however, that States could not rely on administrative subpoenas (or the threat of administrative subpoenas) to obtain information from a national bank because that would be equivalent to prohibited visitation. Instead, a State may invoke the judicial process by initiating civil litigation (like any other litigant), or by seeking to obtain a search warrant from a court, if it can establish to the court that it has probable cause to believe there is a violation of state law.

Please see full update for more information.

Please see full publication below for more information.

LOADING PDF: If there are any problems, click here to download the file.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

© Morrison & Foerster LLP | Attorney Advertising

Written by:

Morrison & Foerster LLP
Contact
more
less

Morrison & Foerster LLP on:

Reporters on Deadline

"My best business intelligence, in one easy email…"

Your first step to building a free, personalized, morning email brief covering pertinent authors and topics on JD Supra:
*By using the service, you signify your acceptance of JD Supra's Privacy Policy.
Custom Email Digest
- hide
- hide