From today's Bloomberg, a report about the two recently-filed lawsuits alleging the federal government's takeover of AIG in 2008 was unconstitutional. One suit was filed in federal court in New York against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the other, seeking $25 billion in just compensation, was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims against the government itself.
Both complaints were filed by attorney David Boies, who represented the U.S. in its Microsoft Inc. 1999 antitrust trial and Al Gore in the Florida presidential recount litigation in 2000."Any time David Boies is asking for $25 billion, I would say this is not a normal case," said Robert H. Thomas of the Honolulu firm Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hasters.
"He takes cutting edge cases in unexplored areas of law,” said Thomas, who specializes in land-use and eminent domain. “It’s audacious. As someone who represents plaintiffs in these kinds of cases, I’d say more power to him. But it’s a stretch."
Read the entire story: Greenberg's 'Audacious' AIG Bailout Suits Pursue Unique Theories, by David Voreacos. It also includes the thoughts of takings experts Jerry Stouck, John Echeverria, Thomas Buchanan, Robert Freilich, and Richard Epstein.
More analysis of the case from Gideon Kanner (Inverse Condemnation Comes to Wall Street) and Ilya Somin (Takings Issues in the AIG Bailout Litigation). The CFC complaint posted here.
