CANTERO ET AL., INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF ALL OTHERS SIMILARLY SITUATED v. BANK OF AMERICA, N. A.
No. 22-529
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
May 30, 2024
602 U. S. ____ (2024)
KAVANAUGH, J.
Argued February 27, 2024
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337 (1906).
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
CANTERO ET AL., INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF ALL OTHERS SIMILARLY SITUATED v. BANK OF AMERICA, N. A.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
The United States maintains a dual system of banking. Banks with federal charters—called national banks—are subject primarily to federal oversight and regulation. Banks with state charters are subject to additional state oversight and regulation. As relevant here, the National Bank Act expressly grants national banks thе power to administer home mortgage loans.
In this case, petitioner Alex Cantero and petitioners Saul Hymes and Ilana Harwayne-Gidansky obtained home mortgage loans from Bank of America, a national bank chartered under the National Bank Act. Both contracts required the borrowers to make monthly deposits into escrow аccounts. Bank of America did not pay interest on the bal
Held: The Second Cirсuit failed to analyze whether New York‘s interest-on-escrow law is preempted as applied to national banks in a manner consistent with Dodd-Frank and Barnett Bank. Pp. 5-14.
(a) Congress has instructed courts how to analyze federal preemption of state laws regulating national banks in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Dodd-Frank ruled out field preemption. Instead, Dodd-Frank provides that the National Bank Act preempts a state law “only if” the state law (i) discriminates against national banks as compared to state banks; or (ii) “prevents or significantly interferes with the exercise by the national bank оf its powers,” as determined “in accordance with the legal standard for preemption” in the Court‘s decision in Barnett Bank of Marion Cty., N. A. v. Nelson, 517 U. S. 25 (1996).
(1) In Barnett Bank, a dispute arose because a national bank wanted to sell insurance in a Florida small town, but the State prohibited most banks from selling insurance. The Court held the Florida law preempted because it significantly interfered with the national bank‘s ability to sell insurance—a federally authоrized power. Importantly, Barnett Bank made clear that a non-discriminatory state banking law can be preempted even if it is possible for the national bank to comply with both federal and state law. 517 U. S., at 31. The Court reasoned that “normally Congress would not want States to forbid, or to impair significantly, the exercise of a power that Congress explicitly granted.” Id., at 33. But the Court added that its ruling did not “deprive States of the power to regulate national banks, where (unlike here) doing so does not prevent or significantly interfere with the national bank‘s exercise of its powers.” Ibid. Pp. 6-7.
(2) Barnett Bank did not purport to establish a clear line to demаrcate when a state law “significantly interfere[s]” with a national bank‘s ability to exercise its powers. 517 U. S., at 33. Instead, the Court analyzed its precedents on that issue, looking to prior cases where the state law was preempted and where the state law was not preempted. Given Dodd-Frank‘s direction to identify significant interference “in accordance with” Barnett Bank, courts addressing
(3) The primary example of a case identified in Barnett Bank where state law was not preempted is Anderson National Bank v. Luckett, 321 U. S. 233 (1944). There, a Kentucky law required banks to turn over abandoned deposits to the State. The Anderson Court held that the Kentucky law did not interfere with national banks’ federal power to collect deposits because that power includes the inseparable “obligation to pay” deposits to those “entitled to demand payment.” Id., at 248-249. Anderson distinguished a similar California law at issue in First National Bank of San Jose v. California, 262 U. S. 366 (1923), where the Court had found the state law to be preempted, and its reasons for differentiating the California law help demonstrate when a state law regulating national banks crosses the line from permissible to preempted. In contrast to the Kentucky law in Anderson, the California law in First National Bank of San Jose allowed the State to claim dormant deposits without proof of abandonment. The Court noted that California‘s law could therefore cause customers to “hesitate” before depositing funds at the bank and thus interfere with the “efficiency” of the national bank in receiving deposits. 262 U. S., at 369-370. Barnett Bank also cited two other examples of state laws that were not preempted, both of which regulated banks in “their daily course of business.” See National Bank v. Commonwealth, 9 Wall. 353 (1870); McClellan v. Chipman, 164 U. S. 347 (1896). Pp. 9-11.
(b) The Court‘s precedents applying Barnett Bank furnish content to the significant-interference test and therefore also to Dodd-Frank‘s
49 F. 4th 121, vacated and remanded.
KAVANAUGH, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 22-529
ALEX CANTERO, ET AL., INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF ALL OTHERS SIMILARLY SITUATED, PETITIONERS v. BANK OF AMERICA, N. A.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
[May 30, 2024]
JUSTICE KAVANAUGH delivered the opinion of the Court.
Federal law extensively regulates national banks such as Bank of America and expressly preempts some (but not all) state laws that regulate national banks. This case concerns the standard for determining when state laws that regulate national banks are preempted. As relevant here, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 expressly incorporated the standard that this Court articulated in Barnett Bank of Marion County, N. A. v. Nelson, 517 U. S. 25 (1996).
I
A
The United States maintains a dual system of banking, made up of pаrallel federal and state banking systems. That dual system allows privately owned banks to choose
Banks with federal charters, called national banks, are subject primarily to federal oversight and regulation. And banks with state charters, called state banks, are subject to additional state oversight and regulation. Those two banking systems co-exist and compete.
The national banking system began in 1863 when Treasury Secretary (later Chief Justice) Salmon Chase proposed, Congress passed, and President Lincoln signed the National Bank Act. 12 Stat. 665; 13 Stat. 99. When a bank obtains a federal charter under the National Bank Act, the national bank gains various enumerated and incidental powers.
When national banks make home mortgage loans, they often offer escrow accounts. Mortgage-escrow accounts are designed to protect both the bank and the borrower. When the borrower makes a mortgage payment, the borrower puts money into an escrow account operated by the bаnk; the bank then uses the funds in escrow to pay the borrower‘s insurance premium and property taxes on the borrower‘s behalf. That arrangement helps the borrower by simplifying expenses and budgeting. Instead of having to pay large lump-sum insurance and tax payments once or
In light of those benefits to both sides, the vast majority of hоme mortgages come with escrow accounts. Indeed, many federal agencies and programs require them. The Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Agriculture‘s Rural Housing Service, for example, mandate escrow accounts for mortgages that they administer or insure.
In the 1970s, Congress found that some national banks were engaging in “certain abusive practices” and that “significant reforms” were necessary to protect borrowers.
B
Bank of America is a national bank chartered under the National Bank Act. Bank of America offers mortgage loans to homeowners, among other services.
In 2010, Alex Cantero obtained a home mortgage loan from Bank of America to purchase a house in Queens Village, New York. In 2016, Saul Hymes and Ilana Harwayne-Gidansky similarly obtained a home mortgage loan from Bank of America to buy a house in East Setauket, New York. Both mortgage contracts required the borrowers to make monthly deposits into escrow accounts, which Bank оf America used to pay the borrowers’ property taxes and insurance premiums when those taxes and premiums came due.
Under New York law, when a bank “maintains an escrow account pursuant to any agreement executed in connection with a mortgage” on certain real estate, the bank “shall” pay borrowers “interest at a rate of not less than two per centum per year” on the balance.
The District Court decided the two cases together. The court agreed with the plaintiffs that New York law required
The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed, holding that the New York interest-on-escrow law was preempted as applied to national banks. Relying primarily on “an unbroken line of case law since McCulloch [v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316 (1819)],” the Court of Appeals held that federal law preempts any state law that “purports to exercise control over a federally granted banking power,” regardless of “the magnitude of its effects.” 49 F. 4th 121, 131 (2022). Because the New York interest-on-escrow law “would exert control over” national banks’ power “to create and fund escrow accounts,” the court concluded that the law was preempted. Id., at 134.
This Court granted certiorari. 601 U. S. ___ (2023).
II
Congress has instructed courts how to analyze federal preemption of state laws regulating national banks. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. Pub. L. 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376. Among other things, Dodd-Frank established the controlling legal standard for when a “State consumer financial law,” like New York‘s interest-on-escrow law, is preempted with respect to national banks.
To begin, Dodd-Frank ruled out field preemption.
New York‘s interеst-on-escrow law does not discriminate against national banks. The question of whether New York‘s interest-on-escrow law is preempted therefore must be analyzed under Dodd-Frank‘s “prevents or significantly interferes” preemption standard. To guide judicial application of that preemption standard, Dodd-Frank expressly incorporates this Court‘s decision in Barnett Bank. The preemption question here therefore must be decided “in accordance with” Barnett Bank, as Dodd-Frank directs.
A
In Barnett Bank, a Florida law prohibited most banks from selling insurance. Barnett Bank of Marion Cty., N. A. v. Nelson, 517 U. S. 25, 29 (1996). A dispute arose because federal law authorized national banks to sell insurance in small towns, and a national bank wanted to sell insurance in a small Florida town. Id., at 28-29.
This Court held that the Florida law was preempted because the law significantly interfered with the national
In short, Barnett Bank decided that the non-discriminatory Florida law at issue there significantly interfered with the bank‘s exercise of its powers, and thus was preempted.
B
But Barnett Bank did not purport to establish a clear line to demarcate when a state law “significantly interfere[s] with the national bank‘s exercise of its powers.” Ibid. Instead, the Court analyzed the Court‘s precedents on that issue. Specifically, to determine whether the Florida law
The paradigmatic example of significant interference identified by Barnett Bank occurred in Franklin National Bank of Franklin Square v. New York, 347 U. S. 373 (1954). The New York law at issue in Franklin prohibited most banks “from using the word ‘saving’ or ‘savings’ in their advertising or business.” Id., at 374. The Franklin Court concluded that the law was preempted because it interfered with the national bank‘s statutory power “to receive savings deposits.” Id., at 374, 378-379. Importantly, the New York law did not bar national banks from receiving savings deposits, “or even” from “advertising that fact.” Id., at 378. Nonetheless, the Court determined that the New York law significantly interfered with the banks’ power because the banks could not advertise effectively “using the commonly understood description which Congress has specifically selected” to describe their activities: receiving savings deposits. Ibid. Federal law gave national banks the power not only “to engage in a business,” but also “to let the public know about it”—and state law could not interfere with the national bank‘s ability to do so efficiently. Id., at 377-378.
In Barnett Bank, the Court compared the Florida insurance law at issue there to the New York savings-deposit law at issue in Franklin, and the Court concluded that the two state laws were “quite similar.” 517 U. S., at 33. Because the Florida law interfered with the national bank‘s power in a way similar to the New York law in Franklin, the Florida law was preempted.
For purposes of applying Dodd-Frank‘s preemption standard, Franklin, Fidelity, and Barnett Bank together illustrate the kinds of state laws that significantly interfere with the exercise of a national bank power and thus аre preempted.
C
Of course, not all state laws regulating national banks are preempted. As relevant here, Dodd-Frank preempts a state law “only if” it “prevents or significantly interferes with” national bank powers.
First, Barnett Bank cited Anderson National Bank v. Luckett, 321 U. S. 233 (1944), as the primary example of a case where state law was not preempted. There, Kentucky law required banks to turn over abandoned deposits to the
Anderson distinguished a seemingly similar California law at issue in an earlier case, First National Bank of San Jose v. California, 262 U. S. 366 (1923), where the Court had found the state law to be preempted.
In First National Bank of San Jose, the California law allowed the State to claim deposits that went “ ‘unclaimed for more than twenty years.’ ” Ibid. Unlike Kentucky‘s law, however, California did not require proof that the account was abandoned. Rather, the California law “attempt[ed] to qualify in an unusual way agreements between national banks and their customers.” Id., at 370. Therefore, the Court noted, the California law could cause customers to “hesitate” before depositing funds at the bank—and thus interfere with the “efficiency” of the national bank in receiving deposits. Id., at 369-370.
Anderson‘s reasons for diffеrentiating the California law at issue in First National Bank of San Jose help demonstrate when a state law regulating national banks crosses the line from permissible to preempted. In contrast to the California law in First National Bank of San Jose, the Kentucky law in Anderson demanded proof that the
Barnett Bank also cited two other examples of state laws that could apply to national banks. In National Bank v. Commonwealth, 9 Wall. 353 (1870), the Court determined that a Kentucky tax law was not preempted. The Kentucky law at issue there taxed the shareholders of all banks (including nаtional banks) on their shares of bank stock. Id., at 360. The Court explained that national banks are “exempted from State legislation, so far as that legislation may interfere with, or impair their efficiency in performing the functions” that federal law authorizes them to perform. Id., at 362. But national banks are not “wholly withdrawn from the operation of State legislation”; rather, they remain subject to state law governing “their daily course of business” such as generally applicable state contract, property, and debt-collection laws. Id., at 361-362. Because the Kentucky tax “in no manner hinder[ed]” the national bank‘s banking operаtions, and produced “no greater interference with the functions of the bank than any other” law governing businesses, the law was not preempted. Id., at 362-363.
For similar reasons, the Court in McClellan v. Chipman, 164 U. S. 347 (1896), another example cited by Barnett Bank, concluded that a generally applicable Massachusetts contract law was not preempted as applied to national banks. 164 U. S., at 357-358, 361. The Court noted that a generally applicable contract law like Massachusetts‘s could be said to act as “a restraint upon the power of a national bank within the State to make such contracts.” Id., at 358. But even so, such state laws could apply to national banks as long as the state laws did not “in any way impai[r] the efficiency of national banks or frustrat[e] the purpose for which they were created.” Ibid.
III
In sum, Barnett Bank examined this Court‘s precedents to determine whether a state law regulating national banks falls on the permissible or preempted side of the significant-interference line. Those precedents furnish content to Barnett Bank‘s significant-interference test—and therefore also to Dodd-Frank‘s preemption standard incorporating Barnett Bank.
A court applying that Barnett Bank standard must make a practical assessment of the nature and degree of the interference caused by a state law. If the state law prevents or significantly interferеs with the national bank‘s exercise of its powers, the law is preempted. If the state law does not prevent or significantly interfere with the national bank‘s exercise of its powers, the law is not preempted. In assessing the significance of a state law‘s interference, courts may consider the interference caused by the state laws in Barnett Bank, Franklin, Anderson, and the other precedents on which Barnett Bank relied. If the state law‘s interference with national bank powers is more akin to the interference in cases like Franklin, Fidelity, First National Bank of San Jose, and Barnett Bank itself, then the state law is preempted. If the state law‘s interference with national bank powers is more akin to the interference in cases likе Anderson, National Bank v. Commonwealth, and McClellan, then the state law is not preempted.3
In analyzing the New York interest-on-escrow law at issue here, the Court of Appeals did not conduct that kind of nuanced comparative analysis. Instead, the Court of Appeals relied on a line of cases going back to McCulloch v. Maryland to distill a categorical test that would preempt virtually all state laws that regulate national banks, at least other than generally applicable state laws such as contract or property laws. Bank of America supports the Court of Appeals’ approach. By contrast, the plaintiffs would yank the preemption standard to the opposite extreme, and would preempt virtually no non-discriminatory state laws that apply to both state and national banks.
We appreciate the desire by both parties for a clearer preemption line one way or the other. But Congress expressly incorporated Barnett Bank into the U. S. Code. And in determining whether the Florida law at issue there was preempted, Barnett Bank did not draw a bright line. Instead, Barnett Bank sought to carefully account for and navigate this Court‘s prior bank preemption cases. Applying those precedents, Barnett Bank ruled that some (but not all) non-discriminatory state laws that regulate national banks are preempted. Under Dodd-Frank, as relevant here, courts may find a state law preempted “only if,” “in accordance with the legal standard” from Barnett Bank, the law “prevents or significantly interferes with the exercise by the national bank of its powers.”
Because the Court of Appeals did not analyze preemption in a manner consistent with Dodd-Frank and Barnett Bank, we vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand
It is so ordered.
