Knowledge Bank

In my thesis, I assess whether the Supreme Court can impact the actions and policies of regulatory agencies. Specifically, I review the impact that the Burger Court, the Court under Chief Justice Warren Burger, had on regulatory agencies as they deregulated banking policies. I provide three case studies dealing with different deregulatory banking trends that occurred during the Burger Court: the raising of interest rate caps on bank loans, the geographic expansion of banking, and the repeal of Glass-Steagall. For each case, I conduct an in-depth analysis on a survey of Burger Court decisions dealing with the deregulatory trend. Following, I trace the impact of these cases through subsequent agency actions. Through each case study, I find that the Supreme Court provided agencies with deregulatory goals with "regulatory tools" that allowed them to deregulate the banking industry. Similarly, the Supreme Court provided agencies with pro-regulatory goals with "regulatory roadblocks" that hindered their ability to maintain strict regulations over banks. Over time, this allowed the Burger Court to drive banking regulation towards deregulation.