Bank of America today announced it will stop foreclosures in all fifty states.

The bank said the foreclosure process on delinquent borrowers will continue, but it will not proceed to judgment or a foreclosure sale.

"Robosigning" allegations are mounting and Sen. Chris Dodd said he will hold a hearing on foreclosure practices November 16. State attorney generals are also investigating and initiating or contemplating fraud suits. Here's more on the prevalence of robo-signing.

"We started instructing people to pull their documents from the clerk of the court," says Anne Batte, who runs a foreclosure-assistance group in Georgia called Operation Restoration. "And the more we instructed, the more we saw. Nearly every document I have seen has been improperly signed."

Bloomberg has an interesting column describing how even a man who had no mortgage had his home foreclosed on due to the robo-signing.

The Nation has a feature article alleging Lou Dobbs employed undocumented workers.

Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.

From The Nation's editorial: Make it Legal:

On any given day, we've all probably eaten fruit harvested by undocumented workers or meat they butchered. These workers also make possible the lifestyles enjoyed by wealthy Americans like Dobbs and Whitman, with their estates and grounds and stables. How these millions of workers could be extracted from their jobs and deported without causing massive disruption not only to their lives but to the entire economy defies the imagination. Yet this is what Dobbs demands with his call for ever tougher enforcement.

The solution:[More...]

Six years ago today, Schapelle Corby was arrested at the airport in Bali when authorities found 4 kilos of marijuana in her boogie board case. She was en route from her home in Australia to visit her sister Mercedes, who lives in Bali with her husband and children.

I've been writing about her case since the news of her arrest first surfaced here in 2005. She has always maintained her innocence, and believes that a ring of corrupt airport baggage handlers put the pot in her suitcase.

The day police allege a Sydney drug ring brought almost 10 kilograms of cocaine through Sydney Airport with the help of corrupt baggage handlers is the same day Schapelle Corby flew to Bali from the same airport.

Schapelle is serving a 20 year sentence in Kerobokan Prison, widely known as a hellhole. Doctors say she has become mentally ill -- childlike -- during her six years in prison. She's being treated with anti-psychotic medication. [More...]

My DVRs are set tonight for the new Bruce Springsteen movie on HBO, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (footage from 1976 to 1978), Project Runway, the Apprentice and Grey's Anatomy.

I've been working all day trying to get my tax stuff ready for the accountant by tomorrow -- the October 15 deadline is right around the corner.

Since I'm not done yet, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The White House blog:

Today, the White House announced that President Obama will not sign H.R. 3808, the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010, and will return the bill to the House of Representatives. The Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010 was designed to remove impediments to interstate commerce. While we share this goal, we believe it is necessary to have further deliberations about the intended and unintended impact of this bill on consumer protections, including those for mortgages, before this bill can be finalized.

Notarizations are important for a large range of documents, including financial documents. As the President has made clear, consumer financial protections are incredibly important, and he has made this one of his top priorities, including signing into law the strongest consumer protections in history in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That is why we need to think through the intended and unintended consequences of this bill on consumer protections, especially in light of the recent developments with mortgage processors.

The authors of this bill no doubt had the best intentions in mind when trying to remove impediments to interstate commerce. We will work with them and other leaders in Congress to explore the best ways to achieve this goal going forward.

Reuters:

The White House said on Thursday the administration is reviewing legislation that could make it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions. White House officials held meetings on the bill to weigh whether the president should sign or veto the legislation, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

[. . . ]Gibbs said after officials considered potential effects of the bill, "I think in general obviously there is concern, ultimately, about the situation." He said the White House may disclose later today a decision on whether the president will sign the bill.

Ok, there must be something more interesting to discuss today than notary publics, but I can't imagine what that is. Let me know in thread.

Open Thread.

Let's assume for the moment that there is in fact, nothing malign about the suspicious circumstances by which the Congress passed the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act. The effects of the legislation would be, in my view, to further erode the due process afforded homeowners in foreclosure proceedings. The use of the ambiguous term "recognize" could, and in my opinion, will, be used to further deprive homeowners of due process - perhaps leading to the blanket acceptance of notarized documents without the opportunity to rebut or impeach them. Let me give you an example of unintended consequences. In Bell Atlantic v. Twombly (PDF), which heightened pleading requirements in the antitrust context, writing for the Court, Justice Souter stated:

The Interstate Recgnition of Notarizations Act would require state and federal courts to:

Each court that operates under the jurisdiction of a State shall recognize any lawful notarization made by a notary public licensed or commissioned under the laws of a State other than the State where the court is located[.]

What does "recognize" mean in this legislation? In terms of admissibility, most trial lawyers are familiar with the concept of the exception to the hearsay rule for public records and the concept of judicial notice. Is this what the term is intended to mean? Are notarized documents now to be viewed as "public records?" Because they aren't. Notary publics are not public officials and the documents they notarize are not public records. The problems that recent events have demonstrated are that, in fact, notarized documents in foreclosure proceedings are very unreliable. Recent events actually point to a policy that should exclude notarized documents from eligibility for such a presumption. More . .

Here is the text of the law I discuss below passed under extraordinary circumstances by the Congress that will make foreclosures easier:

The Beltway Bloggers can add this to the list of achievements by this Congress, via Eschaton, fast track foreclosures:

A bill that homeowners advocates warn will make it more difficult to challenge improper foreclosure attempts by big mortgage processors is awaiting President Barack Obama's signature after it quietly zoomed through the Senate last week. The bill, passed without public debate in a way that even surprised its main sponsor, Republican Representative Robert Aderholt, requires courts to accept as valid document notarizations made out of state, making it harder to challenge the authenticity of foreclosure and other legal documents.

[. . .] The legislation could protect bank and mortgage processors from liability for false or improperly prepared documents. The White House said it is reviewing the legislation.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is a disgraceful outrage and I would like to hear from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid how in the f*ck this happened. And I want to hear from President Barack Obama what exactly he needs to consider about this bill. It should be vetoed immediately.

The Banks own this Congress.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This affects cases I am involved in. Speaking for me only

I was worried that when the Dems got around to making this a campaign issue, they would portray Ken Buck as "soft on crime" or too cozy with defense lawyers, neither of which is remotely true. Happily, the ad primarily focuses on the ethical implications of Buck's actions. I wrote up the whole story here. [More..]