You Can Bank On It

And keeping with "all SCOTUS nonsense day" here at ZVTS, the pattern emerges once again:  Democrats pass law, President Obama signs it, corporations sue claiming the law regulating them is unconstitutional, law starts journey towards Roberts Court.  This time it's banks suing Dodd-Frank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the law creates, claiming that the CPFB itself is unconstitutional because SHUT UP THAT'S WHY.

In particular, the suit will contend that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), created by the law, lacks sufficient checks and balances and, in the words of the CEO of State National Bank, is "simply unconstitutional."

“No other federal agency or commission operates in such a way that one person can essentially determine who gets a home loan, who can get a credit card and who can get a loan for college,” said bank head Jim Purcell. “Dodd-Frank effectively gives unlimited regulatory power to this so-called Consumer Financial Protection Board, also known as CFPB, with a director who is not accountable to Congress, the President or the Courts."

Which is not true.  By that logic, all executive branch agencies that regulate commerce are not accountable and are unconstitutional.

Oh wait, gosh, I think I've found the point.

C. Boyden Gray, who served as White House Counsel under President George H.W. Bush, will represent the plaintiffs in court.

Gray told reporters that the lawsuit was not a challenge to Dodd-Frank as a whole, but rather two specific sections that create the CFPB and a new regulatory group, the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). The FSOC gathers the nation's top regulators to oversee the financial system as a whole, and charges it with identifying what financial institutions pose unique risks to that system and merit heightened oversight.

The FSOC is being challenged on the grounds that once it begins designating systemically significant institutions, it will create a two-tiered financial system where smaller banks will put at a disadvantage, according to Gray.

Yes, those tiers will be "Small community banks that have money" and "big crazy megabanks that are insolvent and gamble with taxpayer money to keep afloat."  It's the "You're hurting the small banks by giving us all this money!  They can't compete with us while we crush them!" defense.  How sweet.

And yes, given a year or two this too will be before the Roberts Court, and away the CPFB and FSOC will go because giant banks are people, my friend, and their rights (and the "free speech" dollars they ply the court with) are more important than yours.

Gotta love it.