With recent Supreme Court decisions making more legal challenges possible, a new Legal Advocacy Fund will increase America’s Credit Unions’ ability to protect and advance the interest of its members in the court system. America’s Credit Unions Transition Board approved $2 million to launch the fund, a new component in efforts to advance, empower, and protect credit unions. It was first announced to attendees at the 2024 Congressional Caucus.
“This fund is part of an ongoing investment on behalf of the credit union movement and will be instrumental in our ability to protect credit unions and their more than 140 million members,” said America’s Credit Unions Chief Advocacy Officer Carrie Hunt. “Litigation is costly, but we will be intentional in the cases we get involved with to ensure we’re making a difference for the industry at large, ultimately making this fund a smart investment that will build a better world for credit unions.”
America’s Credit Unions’ recent legal actions include:
- Joining the Illinois Credit Union League and other organizations to challenge the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act, which would ban financial institutions from charging or receiving interchange fees in Illinois on the tax or gratuity portion of a debit or credit card transaction;
- Joining the Ohio Credit Union League in filing a brief with the Ohio Supreme Court that an appellate district decision rolled back longstanding industry precedent and practice; and
- Filing an amicus brief in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that the Fair Credit Reporting Act is intended to resolve factual disputes, not legal ones.
The fund is particularly relevant in the wake of recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions on federal regulatory rulemaking and the statute of limitations for lawsuits against federal agencies, leading to increased uncertainty in the regulatory and legal environment.
