A lawsuit filed last year by three trade groups over a novel Nevada spousal credit law was dismissed this week.  The case was filed by the American Financial Services Association, the Nevada Credit Union League, and the Nevada Bankers Association against the Commissioner of the Financial Institutions Division (“FID”) of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry (“DBI”) and the Nevada Attorney General.

The trade groups alleged that the law, S.B. 311 (2019), was preempted by the FCRA and ECOA; violated privacy rights and data security rules by requiring creditors to obtain and disseminate private financial information, and was “hopelessly unworkable, and impossible to comply with in practice.”

As noted in a BallardSpahr blog,

Judge Andrew Gordon accepted the argument put forth by the defendants in their motion to dismiss that the controversy was unripe for judicial review. Specifically, applying a three-part test, the court concluded that (1) the trade groups had not articulated a “concrete plan” to violate SB 311, (2) there existed no specific warning or threat of SB 311 being enforced (via public or private enforcement), and (3) the fact that SB 311 had not previously been enforced undercut the trade groups’ arguments and “weighs more heavily towards allowing FID time to issue implementing regulations.”

. . .

Because the dismissal addresses none of the trade groups’ substantive concerns about SB 311, the fight over this law is likely to continue. While the FID is in the process of promulgating regulations, it seems unlikely that a rulemaking will be able to resolve the issues that the trade groups have identified with SB 311.

Eric