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A federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday blocked a new Biden administration rule that would prohibit credit card companies from charging customers late fees higher than $8.
US District Judge Mark T. Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, granted a preliminary injunction to several business and banking organizations that allege the new rule violates several federal statutes.
These organizations, led by the right-leaning US Chamber of Commerce, sued the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the rule was finalized in March. The rule, which was set to go into effect Tuesday, would save consumers about $10 billion per year by cutting fees from an average of $32, the CFPB estimated.
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Gotta love how it’s always one asshole judge in Texas that can stop legislation for the whole country.
Infuriating thing was, this judge was clearly shopped for, but he kicked the case to the DC district Court instead of Texas. He himself even accused the banks of venue shopping in the ruling when he did so! Unfortunately the DC district court sent it right back and said he still had to take the case. He should have recused himself at that pont anyways given his stock holdings and things, but he now decides to reward the the banks for their venue shopping he’s clearly aware of. Judiciary is rotten.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-judge-moves-fee-case-232103686.html
He just put an injunction in place which is common. It just means the case has to be decided first.
If he’s accusing them of venue shopping. I suspect he’s going to rule against them.
The legal standard for an injunction also includes a “likelihood of success on the merits.” The judge agrees with the banks in his ruling that they are likely to succeed on the case. So unfortunately the injunction is a signal there is a good chance he rules in the banks favor ultimately. Though he spends a bunch of the ruling just talking about how he’s mad this case was kicked back to him. He only spends like a page talking about if the legal standard for injunction has been met or not.
Not just likelihood of success, but also whether any irreparable harm could occur while the case is being decided, in the event the case favors the plaintiffs. In this case, if card companies are only allowed to collect $8 while the case is ongoing, and then a judge ruling they are allowed to collect more than that, means there’s a monetary loss that will have happened. Now I wouldn’t be crying if credit card companies are forced to stop ripping people off, and absolutely fuck the Chamber of Commerce, but that’s what it is.
Yes I agree, but it doesn’t just have to meet some of those criteria to get an injunction, it has to meet all those criteria, including likelihood of success. They can’t just argue irreparable harm only if the judge thinks they’re unlikely to succeed. The judge seems to agree with them in that section of the ruling that he thinks that the rule is likely unconstitutional. And conservative judges have been pretty hostile to the consumer financial protection bureau in general. I’m not holding my breath, at least not for this judge, but maybe ultimately on appeal the cfpb will still succeed in the end.
What about the irreparable harm caused by outlandish fees, or will they be forced to pay those back?
Since credit card companies are currently allowed to charge outrageous fees, that would be akin to an ex post facto action so no they wouldn’t. Also while said fees are outrageous, the harm to consumers isn’t relevant because the suit is between credit card companies and the government.
That’s sad to hear.
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““Gotta love how it’s always one asshole
judgetrump appointee in Texas that can stop legislation for the whole country.””It’s a single judge in Texas + an enabling appeallate system
I want stories like this bombarded at the morons on here saying Biden does nothing and both sides are the same.
This Trump fucker is actively fighting for mega corps.
It doesn’t matter to them. They think all they have to say is “Genocide Joe” and they’ve made their argument.
Yeah, because Donny will surely stand up for Gaza much more than Joe ever did…
They don’t like it when you point out that Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, tacitly declaring it to belong wholly to Israel. He’s made it very clear what he thinks about Palestine.
Or that Trump repealed the 50-year-old sanctions preventing Israel from developing on Palestinian territory, which Biden quickly reinstated.
It made Netanyahu so happy, he named a town after Trump in the occupied Golan Heights.
And you know 100% that if Biden was against Israel and supported Gaza, they’d bitch and complain and say Biden supports terrorists. Bad faith arguments across the board coming from those worthless shitstains.
Nah, the Trump base doesn’t give two shits about Israel/Palestine. And they’ll never know Biden ever tried. I’m pretty sure they’re still talking about the laptop
Those people aren’t Trump voters, they are tankies at best and accelerationists at worst (with a generous helping of foreign sockpuppets too)
They want Donald in office because it is better for China. They don’t give a shit about Uyghur genocide or the fact that “socialist” China is producing billionaires.
I miss when MAGAs hated China and Russia. It was the one good thing about them.
They’ve moved on to his executive privilege move to withhold recordings, because there obviously must be something horribly incriminating involving vocal inflection that doesn’t translate to transcripts.
or they don’t want to give free sound clips taken out of context for attack ads?
and would you put executive privilege in quotes if it was the broke cheeto man?That’s how right wing news reports it. I didn’t mean to imply wrongdoing myself. I edited to remove the quotes. I’m in complete agreement of his decision. There’s absolutely no need for the recordings other than to truncate them and use them out of context.
fair enough, i struck out part of my comment, but i’ll leave it up for context.
Bandwagoning tiny shit like “credit card fees” is not going to change the number of deaths he has funded. But that never was your concern tho, was it?
It’s about “Biden does good thing for us so we can excuse a genocide he’s causing”?
Come back when you grow up and you’re done circlejerking on petty little things that your team does.
Okay, so who should I vote for?
“Look, I know Biden actively supports genocide. But if you point that out, then really it is you who is the bigger supporter of genocide. By not supporting Genocide Joe, you are actually a Trump voter.”
Give me a break. Maybe you’re the problem if your satisfied supporting a party who’s political leanings are so flexible that the only metric they cling to is remaining slightly to the left of the GOP, no matter how far to the right that keeps pushing them.
The Democrats are already a center right party. At this rate, when the GOP goes full National Socialist Workers Party, the Democrats will adopt the Tea Party’s politics.
But hey, at least they’ll still be to the left of the GOP, right?
But hey, at least they’ll still be to the left of the GOP, right?
Correct. They will be to the left of the outright fascists. And it’s that or the fascists. By voting for anyone else, you choose the fascists. Sorry, that’s reality.
No, the reality is that people like you are helping to craft that very future by refusing to stop supporting the Democrats for even a moment.
Even if stopping for that moment is what is needed to turn the party back into a workers party, and not one that is entirely beholden to it’s donor class, because they know the rubes will vote for them no matter what they do.
If you are not inclined to want fascist leaders, and assuming you are a person and not a troll, how do you imagine ceasing to support the less fascist party during an election year will result in less fascism?
We are only driving in one direction. The GOP keeps their pedal to the floor, while the Democrats have been happy just to ease up the gas a little - but not slam on the brakes.
You’re saying that it’s better to support the Democrats and delay the inevitable arrival at destination Facism.
I’m saying if ever want to hope to flip a bitch, or even just find an off-ramp, the Democratic party has to be retrained on who they respond to. The only way to do that is to make them more responsive to their voters, then to their donors.
When facing down the barrel of the unlimited donations and super PACS of their donor class, the only weapon we have is solidarity in not supporting them, until they learn.
Taking a little medicine now, but with the chance to actually turn this car around, is worth the risk when the other option is just delayed full tilt facism, with occasional letting off the gas for the new Tea Party Democrats, if they aren’t already outlawed by that point.
…and if they instead decide that the left cannot be depended on and start courting voters more to the right?
I honestly felt how you feel. I just don’t think it’s historically worked that way.
Push local reps to the left and Primary the centrists. I’m all for it… but going home because your guy isn’t on the ballot is playing a dangerous game right now.
If the country can handle a Republican win, then go back to staying home in protest. But I think, especially at this point in time, that a Trump win would spell the end of American democracy.
Ok, I will think on that.
Who specifically should I vote for that has a chance of beating Donald Trump in November?
Give me a name.
Vote for whoever you want.
My responses were directed at people commenting, unprompted, about how anyone who doesn’t support Biden, or buy into his campaign messaging, are either closeted Trump supporters, tankies, or (my personal favorite) foreign socket puppet accounts i.e. Russian bots.
Because obviously they can’t be lifelong Democrats who are fed up with current Democratic establishment and see the threat they pose if left unchanged - precisely because we NEED an actual strong leftwing workers party to stand against the GOP.
So, again, you do whatever your conscience tells you.
If your comfortable with a Democratic party that is already fully run by neoliberals, crushes leftists, and only moves further to the right each election, then keep supporting them. That’s on you.
Myself, I am going to see which option the Democrats are MOST concerned with i.e. uncommitted vs blank vs a specific 3rd party candidate.
I will also continue to support most of my local and statewide progressive candidates, because I do care, and I’m not whatever fantasy the Biden supporters have concocted so they can dismiss people like me without giving these idea any real thought.
I want stories like this bombarded at the morons on here saying Biden does nothing
Biden putting up rules and then failing to enforce them because of a predictable Texas appeallate court issuing a predictable injunction amounts to nothing.
Biden had the opportunity to pack the courts back in 2021 and… didn’t. He still has the opportunity, right now, while he has a Senate majority.
This isn’t just a Biden problem. I could name a dozen of Senate Dems who paved the way for a stacked court, going back to the McCain-friendly Democrats caving to Frist’s Nuclear Option back in 2005 (senior senator from Delaware whatsisface notwithstanding).
But this is a kind of learned liberal helplessness, when a guy like Biden can throw you an empty headline and get “See! He tried to do something! We just need to give him 2009 supermajorities before they’ll work!” Meanwhile, if any Republican wins any branch of any level of government, that’s all they need to eviscerate democracy forever.
I’m more willing to give Biden credit when he’s blocked by trump appointed judges than I am when he’s blocked in the senate by members of the party he nominally heads.
The Legislative Branch does not report to the Executive Branch, it checks it. If the Senate reported to the President, they wouldn’t be doing their job. Trump’s presidency was a good example of corruption of governmental checks and balances.
The Legislative Branch does not report to the Executive Branch, it checks it.
Do they ever. And you may support legislators based solely on how reliably they kill progressive policy for you, but I don’t.
Progressivism is not a contest. Party division weakens us. Just look at how it’s affected the Republican Party.
Stop ordering progressives to be happy with centrism.
I’m not happy with centrism. The term is progressive for a reason. If you abandon all progress short of the goal, you’re not progressing. That just leads to party division, disenfranchisement, and Republican regression. Liberal policies of today were the progressive legislation of the past.
I’m not happy with centrism. The term is progressive for a reason. If you abandon all progress short of the goal, you’re not progressing. That just leads to party division, disenfranchisement, and Republican regression.
Stop trying to redefine “progressive” to mean “slow walking progress.”
We don’t yet know if he actually did anything here or not, we will find out when the legal challenges are done. On one hand, it may survive, in which case something was actually accomplished, on the other hand, Biden may have wasted a whole bunch of people’s time and clogged up the courts even more than they already are.
WTF kind of logic is this? Are you saying he shouldn’t even try and just sit with his thumbs up his ass rather than try to accomplish good things because a court may block it? Should we all just throw our hands up and give up doing anything at all?
That’s a terrible argument. And love how you blame the obstructionism on the one being obstructed from accomplishing their goals.
So, no, we have already seen the action. He did something. Will the sociopathic fascist a-holes in government overturn the action ALREADY TAKEN is what remains to be seen.
First off, I totally agree the argument you responded to is bad and that Biden is driving toward the right goal.
However, if we disambiguate the specific circumstance here, there is sometimes an argument to be made that the one being obstructed is the problem. Think about how many obviously illegal laws Republicans have pushed through. A recent example would be DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE” act trying to eliminate DEI training in companies. It so clearly goes against federal law about protected classes and was deemed unconstitutional because of the first amendment. I don’t think there’s any chance DeSantis actually believed this act was legal or would be allowed, he just wanted the brownie points of “hurr durr, own the libs.”
There are so many cases of that kind of thing, and I think it’s absolutely fair to be critical of those whose laws are being obstructed when they initiate them in bad faith.
However, like I said, that doesn’t apply in this situation; this law was not made in bad faith, and the Texas court is definitely the problem here. I only bring it up because “blaming the obstructionism on the one being obstructed” can sometimes be a legit argument.
Lmfao. So biden bad. Got it.
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See, Biden is doing things. Don’t eat the Russian misinformation troll’s onion.
Also a good example of how executive orders are not the end-all-be-all solution for problems that could in theory be solved by the executive alone. We shouldn’t be blaming Biden for not doing things that ultimately are the responsibility of legislative inaction.
It’s still bullshit that this was blocked, and definitely raises suspicion that the judge in question is bought and paid for by the banking industry, or at the very least, a Trump appointee who doesn’t think twice about looking the other way if it helps Don the Con.
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I just looked up how US citizens can fight judicial corruption and apparently corrupt judges can be reported to the Judicial Conference of the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Transparency International or the Judicial Integrity Network.
Maybe we should start reporting every judge that pulls crap like this to these agencies. Maybe something will actually change if/when investigations start happening.Removed by mod
The Generally Obstructive Party will block this and then specifically bring up he didn’t do shit about it. Their base won’t even check that he tried and will say he tried because he knew it would fail, and they don’t want lower credit card fees anyway.
Not sure if this is a joke or pure delusion
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good things the left-wing is trying to pass that the right-wing is stopping
When you can pass bills that can TikTok from the minority by stapling them to foreign military aid, but you can’t expand Medicare or sanction polluters or secure women’s rights to health care or enfranchise DC voters…
This isn’t “the right just sabotaged us!” it’s “the moderates just sided with reactionaries again”.
Caps on credit card fees? Left proposed, right killed.
So much of this boils down to Dems green lighting GOP judicial nominees while Repubs block Dem nominees without consequences.
What is the remedy for this obstruction other than to scream “Vote or things will get worse!” every two years?
The Dens won’t pack the court. They won’t use our majorities when we have them. They won’t stop giving their economic rivals tons of free money. They won’t stop sending cops into university campuses to crack heads.
Throwing up a rule so a Trump judge can skeet shoot it isn’t “doing anything” when you already know the outcome.
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The cops crack heads under any president.
One of the significant benefits of the FDR presidency was his refusal to unleash police on labor leaders.
That ended under Truman and J. Edgar Hoover.
You’re rambling.
I’m sorry if a bit of history startled you.
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Biden hasn’t unleashed the cops on labor leaders.
The FBI cointelpro program has gone uninterrupted since it’s inception.
I understand it’s hard for a тролль to understand
Doing whataboutism to own the Ruskies
US District Judge Mark T. Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump
This is where we share reaping what we sowed with the long term secondary and tertiary damage from electing Donald Trump (and by extension, giving the Federalist Society carte blanche to re-form the judiciary in their hateful, spiteful image). They will continue to happen for decades to come (and will often be blamed on the liberals/progressive currently in power because they’ll be the only ones trying to do anything to fix it).
The future’s looking bright, guys
Aren’t those guys kinda anti-federalist, except where it benefits them?
Ah yes. Late fees. Something that clearly contributes to our society.
Yeah, better than nothing, but wouldn’t have been enough.
Another example why it never pays off to go after moderate solutions. Republicans will fight everything equally as hard, so why not actually try for a lot?
At least then when things actually make it, they cause a difference
The things that actually make it trend to be the things that can get enough centrist support to overcome Republicans. Or on the rare occasion when Democrats can cut Republicans out of the process entirely (ie budget reconciliation)
Without late fees there is no incentive to pay on time. I don’t understand the rationale to remove them entirely, though regulating maximums makes sense.
I disagree. The 20-30% interest a lot of credit cards have is enough of a reason to pay on time.
I imagine this judge made a fat stack of cash if this. Even if you delay it a year, think of how much money the banks can make extra.
… 10 billion. It says so in the summary.
The judge was probably persuaded by 10k only
It is surprisingly inexpensive to buy a US congressperson or a senator. So yeah, I’d bet less for a judge.
The going rate is a vacation RV for a SCROTUS. A gift card to the olive garden might be enough for some judges.
Good ol’ Christian Right wanting a Christian Nation while defending banks and ignoring their Jesus who destroyed the money lenders’ tables.
They probably see the wrong in the money lenders as simply doing their business in the temple, rather than the practice itself.
It shocks me that people are still shocked that American Christians dont read the bible or have any idea whats in it.
Especially when they, as a group, spend damn near every waking moment violating mathrew 6:5-6:8
The problem is you can interpret it however you want. It’s very easy to justify defying almost any of Christ’s teachings with some fun wordplay. Matthew 6:5-8 is about performative worship, and Christians don’t do performative worship you see, they are actually worshiping so it doesn’t count. Not sure how they weasel themselves out of Matthew 6:14-15 though
They read the parts they want. They hear what they’re told to believe by their preachers. In the end it doesn’t matter, they just interpret it how they want and disregard the rest.
The one time Jesus got angry. Go figure…
Edit: on record. I guess he could’ve had some pretty terrible 2s, or something, that we don’t know about.
“Whoa hold on, think about the poor oligopoly” -some republican judge, probably
The next president needs to pack the Federal court benches. I am getting so tired of right wingnuts upending democracy with these BS rulings.
This kind of stuff is absolutely the number one failure of Democrats. They want to play fair and by the rules, so when there’s opposition to their appointments they just lie down and accept it until the Republicans get exactly who they want. Meanwhile the Republicans will lie, cheat, and slander their way to anything they want, including getting ultra-conservatives in on positions that aren’t supposed to be political.
Biden’s been way better in this regard which is part of what makes him way better than previous Democrat presidents. But I still don’t have high hopes for “the party of compromise” in getting progressives in these kinds of positions. In particular, we all remember what happened at the end of Obama’s presidency with supreme court judges and Roe v Wade.
Democrats use “fair and by the rules” as an excuse for failing at playing politics. It was clear what was going to happen. Nobody did anything except the Republicans who capitalized everything everywhere for a decade. Democrats and liberals are still unaware what happened
You guys are missing an essential point — conservatives control the narrative.
- From Fox News blowing MSNBC and CNN out of the water in ratings
- Right-wing talk radio pioneered by Rush Limbaugh
- Indoctrination Centers (churches) across America…
Conservatives LONG won the information war.
What does this mean? Republicans can do no wrong while Democrats are held to an infinitely higher standard and anything they do is hammered home to the ignorant, uneducated average American FAR greater than what Democrats can do to the right.
Things have marginally improved in the last 10 years as the recognition of Botherism has expanded, but let’s not forget: (1) Republicans still have the majority of the money, (2) Republicans won huge with Citizens United and SpeechNow decisions, and (3) they’re assholes and assholes will beat you with experience.
Catering to a broader coalition on the left that is also far less confrontational by the nature of being more empathetic is also something that we as a group must come to terms with. Our rallying points have never been blind loyalty and fear-mongering like the Right uses with the literally biochemically-altered conservative brain (studies on MRI testing prove this). We gather strength through vision, hope, solidarity, love — hence why Obama’s Hope & Change message in 2008 was pure genius.
Though I will say I do agree there is a certain type of character we can seek to promote on the left, like AOC, like Bernie, like Warren, and like even Swalwell. Someone not afraid to push the bully back. Hopefully we learned a big lesson from Obama’s era of capitulation and seeing his hand get smacked down over and over as he tried to reach across the aisle.
My personal saying has always been: Democrats rule with incompetence. Republicans rule with spite and malice.
Of course it’s Texas.
I remember how frequent “legislating from the bench” came up on the news - Is the GOP up in arms about this one?
“activist judges” was the term I remember, but only when right wingers were
projectingcomplaining about liberal judges…I hate this timeline so much. Lie lie lie lie lie and get their way.
Idk if it’s this one, but there’s one Texas county they love ramming these things through because there’s only one judge and he’s a hardcore trumper.
It’s a federal judge, Texas is incidental here
The 5th circuit is a treasured location to forum shop to get the outcome the plantiffs are looking for.
https://prospect.org/justice/2024-04-15-americas-fifth-circuit-problem/
But both sides! They’re the same! Blah blah blah. Politicians are politicians, but the Republicans do absolutely nothing to actually better the lives of their voters. Republicans answer only to the pursuit of absolute power and their wealthy donors. End rant…
And Democrats do nothing to stop them. 🤷
Any suggestions? 🤔
Stop rewarding democrats for barreling further right as fast as they can? 🤷♂️
Too bad that’s not a thing.
Which only proves that America is already fascist by definition and its time to burn it down.
🤦♂️
Any websites that keep score on judges? We may not get to vote on federal judges, but some of us get to on others.
Someone needs to build Yelp but for judges.
OK… so this is weird. The Supreme court just upheld that the funding structure of the CFPB was constitutional overruling the 5th circuit ruling that the CFPB funding structure was unconstitutional… But THIS federal judge just used the 5th court unconstitutionality ruling as the basis for why this CFPB credit card rule was unconstitutional (the CFPB is unconstitutional so any decision they make is invalid). It seems like he’s leaning on a just overturned ruling to make this decision. Is this just a case of a timing error where everything in the credit card fee case was filed before he Supreme Court overruled the 5th circuit’s ruling or is there another argument there?
It’s the 1% getting what they paid for.
There’s also a sort of trend where injunctions preserve the status quo. By granting the injunction fees change at most once regardless of the ruling.
Wait, the Chamber of Commerce is conservative? Is that all of them?
US Chamber of Commerce is a Conservative lobby group with a name meant to sound innocuous. Local CoCs run the gamut but are generally for small to mid businesses to network and collectively engage when the local government. Kinda like a union but for bosses.
Damn, that’s entirely right, it’s a union for the owner class.
It’s just a made up private company like the better business bureau. The try to seem official or related to government but it’s just another company.
That makes sense. Thanks
did Joe Biden know he was going to do this
??? Do what?
The CFPB agency announced it would no longer allow credit card companies to adjust fees based on inflation, a loophole in the CARD act, and then a federal judge appointed by Trump blocked it.
