Greenwood Trust Company v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This train wreck of a case arises out of a headlong collision between a state consumer-protection law and a federal banking law. It brings into sharp focus the tensions inherent in our federalist system while presenting a novel legal question: can a federally insured bank, chartered in Delaware, charge its Massachusetts credit-card customers a late fee on delinquent accounts, notwithstanding a Massachusetts statute explicitly prohibiting the practice? The district court answered this question in the negative, enforcing the state statute and granting partial summary…