Posted on 01/18/2010 4:04:31 AM PST by reaganaut1
Wall Street’s main lobbying arm has hired a top Supreme Court litigator to study a possible legal battle against a bank tax proposed by the Obama administration, on the theory that it would be unconstitutional, according to three industry officials briefed on the matter.
In an e-mail message sent last week to the heads of Wall Street legal departments, executives of the lobbying group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, wrote that a bank tax might be unconstitutional because it would unfairly single out and penalize big banks, according to these officials, who did not want to be identified to preserve relationships with the group’s members.
The message said the association had hired Carter G. Phillips of Sidley Austin, who has argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court, to study whether a tax on one industry could be considered arbitrary and punitive, providing the basis for a constitutional challenge, they said.
Administration officials and other legal experts have called those claims dubious.
Indeed, President Obama urged the financial lobby to stand down when he introduced the tax proposal last week: “Instead of sending a phalanx of lobbyists to fight this proposal or employing an army of lawyers and accountants to help evade the fee, I suggest you might want to consider simply meeting your responsibilities.”
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A court challenge would open a new front in the banking industry’s assault on additional financial regulation.
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Republicans have remained unusually silent on the tax, hoping to avoid a choice between supporting a tax increase and defending big bankers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Correct me if I remember it wrong, but about 2 months ago some banks wanted to pay back the money early and Obama wouldn’t allow it-WANTED them to owe the money.
Oh, as I type I see. Obama had this punishment tax for capitalism in mind already and it’s easier to impose if the banks owe money.
we need to do this obamacare
Hmmm. Maybe we can let the big banks set the stage for asserting that ALL progressive taxes are unconstitutional, in that they unfairly single out a group for punitive taxation.
Would be great if we had all these lawyers working on bambi’s BC issue as well.
It’d be nice if the Constitutionalists had stepped in when the Feds were deciding which Wall Street firms would surive and which would go under.
Actually, I think almost all of the banks have paid back their loans and the thug-in-chief wants the fines imposed anyway.
If Wall Street doesn’t grow a pair of nads now, they are forever doomed.
I agree. Had some of these banks (not all of course) not marched on Washington and demanded to be bailed out for their poor business decisions, then the door for such a tax would not have been opened.
The funny part of this is that most of 0bama's voters do not believe they will be impacted by this. If anything, I would imagine that most banks are very good with managing money and can make money even in bad times as well as good. They will surely find a way to pass these taxes right on down to the customers.
In some respects, I kinda hope that if such a tax is enacted, the banks structure the collection of said tax so that it takes more money out of the pockets of 0bama voters than the rest of us.
If your not in the industry it is very easy to lose track of what is going on. I think what happened, was they did away with mark to market accounting and outsourced debt to the fed. Presto, everything is fivers again..
Same principle applies to the “Cadillac” health care plan tax. Unions are exempted.
Agree it’s about time they grew a pair most of what Obama has done is unconstitutional,I think the Supreme Court will have a holiday with the case.The only thing Obama knows about law is how to skirt it.
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