American Banker informs MHProNews eight additional state attorneys general have requested to join a lawsuit originally filed by a Texas community bank and two conservative organizations challenging the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The suit focuses on the Orderly Liquidation Authority in Title II of Dodd-Frank, which permits the secretary of the Treasury to seize the assets of a financial institution without advanced warning. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says, “Under this law, unelected federal bureaucrats are empowered to unilaterally liquidate financial institutions in which the state invests taxpayer dollars. This unprecedented regime deprives the State of Texas of basic due process rights and places taxpayers’ resources at risk.” The lawsuit also challenges the structure of the CFPB, the president’s right to make a recess appointment to head the agency, and the authority of the Financial Stability Oversight Council. The attorneys general from Oklahoma, South Carolina and Michigan joined the case last Sept. The suit was originally filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in June, 2012. The defendants, essentially every federal financial regulator, have asked for dismissal of the case.
