Securities Industry Association et al. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System et al. (468 U.S. 137)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 28, 1984 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 468 U.S. 137 · 104 S. Ct. 2979
- Decided
- June 28, 1984
- Term
- October Term 1983
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. This case involves a challenge to the efforts of a state commercial bank to enter the business of selling third-party commercial paper. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) concluded that such activity by state member banks is not prohibited by the Banking Act of 1933, ch. 89, 48 Stat. 162 (commonly known as the Glass-Steagall Act) because commercial paper is neither a “security” nor a “note” within the meaning of that Act and therefore falls outside the Act’s proscriptions. The District Court disagreed with the Board, but the Court of Appeals deferred to the Board’s interpretation and reversed the judgment of the District Court. Because commercial paper falls within the plain language of the Act, and because the inclusion of commercial paper within the terms of the Act is fully consistent with the Act’s purposes, we conclude that commercial paper is a “security” under the Glass-Steagall Act, and we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals. hH During 1978 Bankers Trust Company (Bankers Trust), a New York-chartered member bank of the Federal Reserve System, began serving as agent for several of its corporate customers in placing their commercial paper in the commercial-paper market. Petitioners, the Securities Industry Association (SIA), a national securities-industry trade association, and A. G.…
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