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Raymond H Brescia

Civil Rights

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The Community Reinvestment Act: Guilty, But Not As Charged, Raymond H. Brescia Jan 2013

The Community Reinvestment Act: Guilty, But Not As Charged, Raymond H. Brescia

Raymond H Brescia

Since its passage in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) has charged federal bank regulators with "encourag[ing]" certain financial institutions "to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered consistent with [] safe and sound” banking practices. Even before the CRA became law—and ever since—it has become a flashpoint. Depending on your perspective, this simple and somewhat soft directive has led some to charge that it imposes unfair burdens on financial institutions and helped to fuel the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007 and the financial crisis that followed. According to this argument, the CRA …


The Politics Of Procedure: An Empirical Analysis Of Motion Practice In Civil Rights Litigation Under The New Plausibility Standard, Raymond H. Brescia, Edward J. Ohanian Jan 2013

The Politics Of Procedure: An Empirical Analysis Of Motion Practice In Civil Rights Litigation Under The New Plausibility Standard, Raymond H. Brescia, Edward J. Ohanian

Raymond H Brescia

Is civil procedure political? In May of 2009, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, which explicitly extended the “plausibility standard,” first articulated in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly two years earlier, to all civil pleadings. That standard requires that pleadings, in order to satisfy Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, must state a plausible claim for relief. For many, these rulings represented a sea change in civil pleading standards. Where prior Supreme Court precedent had provided that a pleading should not be dismissed “unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no …


Tainted Loans: Towards A Mass Torts Approach To Subprime Mortgage Litigation, Raymond H. Brescia Mar 2009

Tainted Loans: Towards A Mass Torts Approach To Subprime Mortgage Litigation, Raymond H. Brescia

Raymond H Brescia

A poison has entered the financial bloodstream. The subprime mortgage crisis and the wider financial crisis it has spawned have caused the erosion of trillions of dollars in wealth, destroyed whole communities and the dislocation of millions of homeowners. Yet, unlike in other situations where toxic products have caused widespread harm, to date, we have not seen an avalanche of litigation, large jury awards, massive settlements compensating victims and financial ruin for the distributors of those products. Some of this is changing, however. Litigation arising out of the present financial crisis is hitting the courts, including suits alleging discrimination in …


Subprime Communities: Reverse Redlining, The Fair Housing Act And Emerging Issues In Litigation Regarding The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Raymond H. Brescia Jan 2009

Subprime Communities: Reverse Redlining, The Fair Housing Act And Emerging Issues In Litigation Regarding The Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Raymond H. Brescia

Raymond H Brescia

As the nation struggles to find its bearings in the current financial crisis, and venerable pillars of Wall Street crumble, hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent to shore up the financial system and re-capitalize credit markets. While the eyes of Washington are directed towards Wall Street, there is much talk of the need to prop up Main Street as well, and nowhere is this more apparent than in communities and neighborhoods across the United States that have experienced the first wave of the financial crisis hit: home upon home of foreclosed properties, abandoned and neglected, their absent silence …


Capital In Chaos: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis And The Social Capital Response, Raymond H. Brescia Jan 2008

Capital In Chaos: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis And The Social Capital Response, Raymond H. Brescia

Raymond H Brescia

“Capital in Chaos: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis and the Social Capital Response,” examines the role of trust and the absence of social capital in the subprime mortgage crisis, with a particular focus on the impact of the subprime crisis on communities of color.