Legal Commentary

Good Question(s) About GM

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

Gerard Magliocca asks a good question,

Now we own 60% of GM. Does that make GM a state actor until those shares are sold?

Under our deeply twisted and narrow state action jurisprudence, I think the answer will be no, so long as the government is not actually controlling a majority of the Board.

Similarly, no sovereign immunity abroad, in nations that use rules like our Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FISA). And, of course, none here, since its not federally chartered.

[I am just waiting for someone to make the — losing — argument that nationalizations violate the Government Corporation Control Act, 31 U.S.C. § 9102 which states,

An agency may establish or acquire a corporation to act as an agency only by or under a law of the United States specifically authorizing the action.

GM isn’t being (partly) acquired “to act as an agency,” so the GCCA won’t apply.]

Full post as published by Discourse.net on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).