The Supremes Take the Initiative
The California Supreme Court sided with the Initiative Process today.
The California Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision today validating that the Proposition 8 supporters do have standing to appeal the decision by Federal District Judge Vaughn Walker declaring the proposition invalid because it violates the California and US Constitution. By upholding the right of the losing side in that Federal case to take their appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit, the court was not taking a position on the merits of the appeal but acting on the important procedural principle that when state officials decline to defend a law passed by the voters that the proponents of the initiative petition in question may act for the state in doing so.
To decide the matter otherwise would have sent a chilling message to the people of California that their votes don’t matter in initiative petitions if the Governor and Attorney General do not favor the measure in question. The Supreme Court reasoned that was not the intent of the people in permitting the initiative and referendum in the California Constitution.
That the court decided the matter unanimously sent a clear message to state elected officials that they do not get to pick and choose the laws they like, but have a duty to defend the laws unless and until the question of the validity of the measure is finally resolved.
It was a prudent and common sense decision.
Now the parties can argue the matter of Proposition 8 on its merits and no matter what the final outcome may be all will know they got a fair hearing on those merits and were not denied their appellate rights by a procedural trick by politicians seeking to substitute their personal views for those of the voters.
Related articles
- What Is Prop 8? Gay Marriage Opponents Win California High Court Victory (abcnews.go.com)
- Prop 8: California Supreme Court says Amendment Proponents Do Have Standing to Appeal (pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com)
- California Supreme Court to decide Proposition 8 issue Thursday (mercurynews.com)
- Supreme Court rules Prop 8 supporters can defend the law (mercurynews.com)
- CA Supreme Court Issues Prop 8 Standing Ruling (bilerico.com)
BofA Feared Being Netflixed
Image via CrunchBase
Reuters broke the news today that Bank of America was abandoning its plan to charge its customers $5 per month to use its debit card. The plan had provoked outrage and memberships in credit unions had picked up substantially as customers lined up at the exit ramps.
Whether BofA was responding to customers or just realized the jig was up when none of the other major banks followed suit is debatable. The recent painful experience of Netflix that surprised its customers who by all accounts loved the service by increasing prices and splitting the streaming and dvd services was certainly instructive. Almost a million customers bailed out of Netflix sending the firm reeling.
Bank of America faced the same fate as Netflix with plenty of other banks and credit unions ramping-up their marketing messages eager to take market share from BofA as a result of its decidedly customer un-friendly ways. It was not Dodd-Frank that saved customers it was fear of competition.
Banks have been piling on fees in response to the Dodd-Frank provisions limiting their hidden fees such as interbank changes or swipe fees. So instead of cutting costs the banks are loading up on nuisance fees taking a page out of the airline pricing book. But blaming banks alone would be misplaced anger. The only good news in all of this is that by forcing all the fees and charges to be transparent and collected directly from customers allowed competitive pressure worked. There is a clear and compelling lesson in this issue for Americans in the health care debate.
ObamaCare is worse than Dodd-Frank and will have worse consequences. Dodd-Frank just like Sarbanes-Oxley were both mean spirited knee jerk reactions that have cost us more money and done us less good than some of the sins they sought to correct. Only competition can fix these problems but legislation is the mother’s milk of lobbyists and campaign contributions so only bills like these keep the money flowing to politicians. Competitive markets would produce better banking, better health care and better politics.
But I digress, I exacted my own personal revenge on BofA by closing one of my savings accounts, putting away by BofA credit card and using American Express instead of my debit card.
I know its petty revenge but it felt good–I stuck it to BofA three times.
Related articles
- Bank Of America Will Lobby Congress To Ensure $5 Fee Stays And America Loves It (BAC) (businessinsider.com)
- BofA’s $5 Debit Card Fee Is a Tax on the Disloyal (blogs.wsj.com)
- More Banks Scrap Debit-Card Fees (newser.com)
- Some big banks back down from debit-card fee (bottomline.msnbc.msn.com)
- Bank of America Begins Walkback on $5 Debit Card Fee (news.firedoglake.com)
- Dems want investigation on BofA fee (politico.com)
- Geithner on BofA Fees: We Will Prevail (newser.com)
- BofA Customers May Start Taking Their Business Elsewhere (mediabistro.com)
- New Bank Fees Drive Customers to Credit Unions (foxnews.com)
- Public Outrage Wins One (lewrockwell.com)
- Chase drops debit card fee, BofA to adjust plans (seattlepi.com)
- Customers Revolt, and Win? Banks Back Off New Fees (moneyland.time.com)
