IN OTHER SUPREME COURT NEWS. Nathan Newman flags the Watters v. Wachovia decision to uphold a regulation exempting the mortgage subsidiaries of banks from regulation by state laws. Newman calls this "a gift to predatory lenders" and notes that the Bush's administration's decision to block the state laws, which the Court upheld, "directly fed the predatory lending mortgage bubble and helped encourage the abuses that may lead to 2.2 million subprime borrowers facing foreclosure on their home loans." More importantly, as Justice John Paul Stevens noted in his dissent, "Never before have we endorsed administrative action whose sole purpose was to pre-empt state law rather than to implement a statutory command." The precedent being set here is very odd.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
