Occupy lawsuit seeks to hasten Volcker Rule implementation
By: Bartlett Naylor
Eugene Scalia: Meet Akshat Tewary.
On Feb. 26, 2013, attorney Tewary, a member of Occupy the SEC, filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other bank regulators to compel them to obey the law and finalize the Volcker Rule. That’s the part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act that bars banks gambling with depositors’ money. Dodd-Frank mandated that the regulators, including the Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), complete this rule by July 2012.
They have not.
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The Tewary lawsuit becomes the first litigation initiated to hasten, as opposed to delay, rulemakings from Dodd-Frank. Eugene Scalia, an attorney with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (and son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia), has successfully argued cases against financial rulemaking. The law firm notes Scalia’s success on its website: “Retained by two financial industry trade groups, Scalia and his Gibson Dunn team moved aggressively to beat back” certain financial rules.
For example, one of his lawsuits succeeded in stopping an important SEC rule, congressionally mandated by Dodd-Frank, to improve shareholder rights. Scalia’s suit, echoing a familiar right-wing complaint, claimed the agency inadequately weighed the rule’s costs and benefits.
Insiders such as CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton observe that the Scalia lawsuits have essentially frozen the pace of regulation with this cost-benefit strategy. “Regulators found themselves outmatched by Scalia,” observes a story posted on the Scalia law firm website.
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http://www.citizenvox.org/2013/02/28/occupy-the-sec-volcker-rule-lawsuit/
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