John Cooney and Brock Landry wrote an article entitled "The Scope of State Power: Supreme Court Rules that National Banks are Subject to Enforcement of State Laws" for Community Banker, published by the American Bankers Association.
The article explores the impacts of the Surpeme Court's recent decision in Cuomo v. Clearing House Association, that the States are not categorically prohibited from enforcing their consumer protection laws against national banks. Cooney and Landry conclude that unless the issue is resolved by Congress in the pending financial reform legislation, national banks will adopt as their threshold defense in future enforcement actions the claim that State enforcement is barred by the doctrine of conflict preemption whenever the State law involved is broader than the counterpart federal statute or rule. The scope of federal preemption is a critical issue in Congress' current consideration of an Obama Administration proposal to create a Consumer Financial Products Agency to assure compliance with federal consumer protection laws.