Comments in Times on Cuomo Case

by Jeff Sovern

Back on April 27, the Times published an editorial titled When Banks Discriminate about Cuomo v. The Clearinghouse Association, the pending Supreme Court case addressing whether state officials can investigate discriminatory lending by national banks, or whether such investigations are preempted by federal law (my co-blogger Deepak Gupta blogged about it here, and collected various links).  The Times argued against preemption. Earlier this week the Times posted my letter on the editorial:

Investigating Banks

Published: May 11, 2009

To the Editor:

Re “When Banks Discriminate” (editorial, April 28):

You argue that the Supreme Court should rule that states can investigate whether nationally chartered banks have discriminated in making loans because the states are more willing to enforce such laws than federal authorities.

To this may be added that it is difficult and expensive for wronged individuals to win on such claims, so that if the states cannot act and federal regulators refuse to, lending discrimination laws are not likely to be enforced at all.

Jeff Sovern
Jamaica, Queens, April 28, 2009

The writer is a professor at St. John’s University School of Law and a co-coordinator of the Consumer Law and Policy Blog.

I think that's the first reference to the Blog in the Times.