If state officials could not be bound by a consent decree, why would the other side ever agree to settle a case, Justice Scalia asked R. Edward Cruz, the Texas solicitor general.
If the banks were to agree to settle the case on the A.G.'s terms, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would be the agency charged with enforcing the terms.
"I said 'why don't we agree to settle up?'.
In response to a question from Adrian Sanders, a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament, James Murdoch said that even knowing what he knows now, he would still have agreed to settle a civil suit by one phone hacking victim, Gordon Taylor, a soccer union official, in 2009.
The government claims the refugee travel ban would boost the effectiveness of a third party resettlement deal because it would prevent people who agreed to settle elsewhere ever travelling to Australia.
Two years ago, the city would most likely have agreed to settle, whether city lawyers believed that the officer was culpable or not.
"He said I would be ridiculed unless I agreed to settle things without an investigation".
California is among the states whose homeowners have suffered the most in the housing market collapse, and because of its size, officials involved in the negotiations said banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, would want its participation before agreeing to settle and to pay substantial sums.
Two other insurers who have agreed to settle with the bank would pay the other 50percentt.
If Drax had not agreed to settle the investigation the fine would have been higher.
