Looking Ahead on the Dodd-Frank Consumer Protection Path

The passage last year of a new federal law covering lending and credit transactions for consumers will provide stronger protection, but questions about how it will be enforced and what it will actually mean are just beginning to be answered.

That was the overall theme of the 2011 Public Service Conference held at Eckstein Hall. The conference, New Directions in Consumer and Community Financial Protection, brought together prominent federal and state authorities on the subject and provided an up-to-the-minute look at the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

“Dodd-Frank created a floor, not a ceiling, for consumer protection” noted Kathleen Keest, an expert on consumer protection law from the Center for Responsible Lending.  The new law reverses some of the federal preemption rules that were in effect prior to its passage, providing state attorney generals with increased enforcement authority with respect to many consumer protection laws.

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Best of the Blogs: The Mess in Madison

This month’s Best of the Blogs feature takes a look at the budget debate in Madison.  In my opinion, it is myopic to focus solely on the budgetary aspects of the ongoing debate.  This is a raw political struggle, in which Governor Walker has attacked the primary source of campaign funding for Democrats.  The debate over the biennial budget is small potatoes to the leaders of the Democratic Party.  They perceive this bill as nothing less than an existential attack on their ability to raise funds (and therefore buy television advertising) in an amount sufficient to elect candidates in a closely divided state.

If anything, this current fight is only round one, with a second partisan fight over legislative re-districting yet to come.  The Voter ID bill, which previously was viewed by Democratic leaders as a dangerous assault on their electoral power, now in comparison seems to be a minor inconvenience.  While it is always entertaining to watch two political parties seek to destroy each other, one can’t help but feel that someone in Madison should actually be focused on governing the State.  Both Governor Walker, who picked this partisan fight, and the Democrats, who chose to grind government to a halt in order to defend partisan interests, share equal blame in my eyes.

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More “Bullcoming”? The Court Courts Confusion in Confrontation

In some ways I should be grateful for doctrinal train wrecks. Messy case law provides endless excuses for writing articles and blog posts as well as delivering lectures that purport to see “the way” through the swamp. Like a child’s kaleidoscope, such cases offer something different for everyone to see, and no one is clearly wrong. Yet Supreme Court opinions are not solely intended for the entertainment of academics or the bewilderment of law students and lawyers.

Of the three metaphors I used in the preceding paragraph, a “train wreck” is the most apt way to describe Michigan v. Bryant, the Supreme Court’s latest attempt to illuminate the interrelationship between the hearsay rules of evidence and the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation right. “Swamp” and “kaleidoscope” are apt, but “train wreck” best captures the real cost of confusion. Bryant not only failed to illuminate a much-rumored “dying declaration” exception to the confrontation right, it also raises considerable confusion about what constitutes the “testimonial hearsay” that is protected by the confrontation right in the first place. For the defense lawyers and prosecutors who must eat this mush (fourth metaphor) every day, you have my best wishes and these words of solace.

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