From a Bloomberg News column by Rory Lancman, a Democrat who is a member of the New York State Assembly, about the Martin Act that New York attorney generals use against the financial services industry:
The Martin Act empowers only the attorney general to bring securities cases. Worse, courts are shutting down traditional state common-law negligence claims brought against securities-market participants, on the theory that the Martin Act, in granting exclusive authority to the attorney general, was intended to prevent lawsuits by private investors....That's why the deputy majority leader of the state Senate, Republican Tom Libous, and I have proposed legislation that would authorize pension funds to sue for damages that result from violations of the act.
For this we need Republicans? As if trial lawyers (to New York politicians, a word that is synonymous with "campaign donors") don't have enough pretexts already to bring securities lawsuits? Amazing.
