Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[lushka]

Reckusdo.... I am far from having a legal background , but here are some additional thoughts from "the Rule of the Law Guy" and Tim Howard ,from his blog with regards to the Collins case:
ruleoflawguy
FEBRUARY 23, 2017 AT 8:43 PM
tim

i just wanted to make you aware (and your vast coterie of blog admirers) that there is an interesting case in federal district court, southern district of texas, brought by a plaintiff named collins.

collins is making all of the arguments made by perry, but also the additional argument that HERA is unconstitutional because by establishing the fhfa director as a single agency director not removable at will by potus, HERA made an unconstitutional delegation of executive authority.

the dc circuit court found this in the PHH case, for which en banc review by the entire dc circuit court has been granted. so the merits panel decision holding the cfpb director could not exercise his authority unless he could be removed at will by potus is vacated, pending decision by the full appeals court.

now, the dc circuit court did not void dodd frank as unconstitutional, but merely rewrote the statute to make it constiutional, in effect, by making the cfpb director removable at will by potus. the court believed it was authorized to do this because there is a severability clause in the statute.

however, there is no severability clause in HERA.

this argument is contained in IV of the memorandum of law for collins’ motion for summary judgment: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9819mib0tkjgnt9/collins%202%3A9%3A17%20motion%20for%20summary%20judgment.pdf?dl=0

now, this is a robin which does not make a spring, but this may divert one’s attention from the miasma that is the perry decision.

rolg

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jtimothyhoward
FEBRUARY 23, 2017 AT 9:05 PM
One of the commenters did mention the Collins case, but did not describe it or highlight its relevance as clearly as you have. I appreciate your doing that. And, yes, it is another burst of sunshine to help remove the gloom of Tuesday’s ruling.

For me, though, the main import of the DC Court of Appeals opinion wasn’t so much to change the odds of the eventual outcome (although it did that at least to some degree) as to push everything out further in time. Mnuchin reinforced this in his comments on Fox Business this morning. Following his appointment as Treasury Secretary-designate, and his comments about dealing with the Fannie and Freddie issue “reasonably fast,” I was hoping he might be able to pull off a quick strike that would set the companies’ opponents back on their heels. That’s now not going to happen. If we do get to the right outcome, which I still think we will, it will be through more of a “grind it out” slog, with a good deal of kicking and screaming along the way from those who don’t get what they want.