"WWHD"? How should courts use the question: "What Would Hamilton Do?"
Description
This episode considers modern-day financial regulation - specifically, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau - and what Alexander Hamilton might have thought about it.
Then I consider, using a recent Fifth Circuit opinion as a test case, whether those thoughts offer any guidance about the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I doing so, I focus on the trial-court rules that guard against speculative testimony from a witness, as well as expert testimony that is not well-grounded in a recognized methodology.
Based on that review, I suggest that analysis of Hamilton's intent - that would likely not be admissible in a trial court - may not be probative in a Constitutional analysis about a feature of modern government that did not exist in Hamilton's lifetime.
United States
