As the new Administration gets going, one of the quick decisions to be made is how they will handle Cuomo v. The Clearing House. This case, out of the Second Circuit, raises an important question about whether states can protect their citizens when the federal government — in this matter, in the form of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — fails to do so (whether under state of federal laws) and will shed some light on how the new Administration plans to approach state regulators.
A further wrinkle in this case is that the underlying state investigation — way back in 2005 — related to allegations of racial discrimination in lending practices, a topic of extensive investigation and discussion in the years that have followed.
And here is the initial underlying OCC Advisory Letter regarding state investigations — OCC AL 2002-9 — that led to the quick involvement of the federal government in support of the investigated banks.
I’ll have more on this soon, but please check out Oyez for a more in-depth overview.
[UPDATE: Illinois AG Lisa Madigan calls on the Obama Administration to reverse course in the case. Law Dork, 2.0 covers it here.]
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Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found