Another Assault On Treasury’s Infamous Third Amendment: The Struggle Over The GSEs Is Not Over

Late this past May, Thomas and Ida Saxton brought suit against the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in the Northern District of Iowa, and thus opened up a new front in the long-running litigation over the federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two Government Sponsored Enterprises, or GSEs, that had hybrid private and public status. Saxton v. FHFA marks perhaps the most noteworthy development since District Court judge, Royce Lamberth, granted the United States an unexpected and undeserved victory, on summary judgment no less, in Perry Capital LLC v. Lew, decided on September 30, 2014. In my capacity as an advisor to a number of institutional investors, I have discussed at length the many weaknesses of that opinion in earlier Forbes posts here , here, here, and here. In this article I will not restate the many defects of economics, statutory construction and constitutional law that pervade that opinion.