Bull Moose Project Files Amicus Defending Debit Card Fee Caps

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Bull Moose Project today announced it has filed an amicus curiae brief in Linney's Pizza, LLC v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, urging the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the Federal Reserve's authority to regulate debit card interchange fees under the Durbin Amendment.

The brief argues that the appellant's challenge, if accepted by the court, would gut a democratically enacted consumer protection statute and invite federal judges to substitute their own policy preferences for the expert judgment of an independent agency that Congress explicitly authorized to act in this area.

"Affordability is a defining issue for the Trump administration and for working Americans," said Aiden Buzzetti, President of the Bull Moose Project. The Durbin Amendment is one of the few direct levers the federal government has to lower costs at the register. Gutting the Fed's authority here, not because the Fed exceeded its authority, but because it didn't act aggressively enough to their liking, would be a major loss for Americans nationwide."

The Brief's Core Arguments

The Bull Moose Project's brief advances two arguments:

The Durbin Amendment is a clear exercise of Congressional authority that easily satisfies the major questions doctrine. The brief argues that the major questions doctrine — clarified by the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA (2022) — has no application here. The doctrine asks whether an agency is claiming vast new regulatory power from obscure statutory language. There is nothing obscure about the Durbin Amendment: Congress explicitly granted the Federal Reserve authority to set and adjust debit card interchange caps, and Regulation II is a direct implementation of that mandate.

Loper Bright does not authorize courts to make policy decisions from the bench. The brief argues the appellant misreads the Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024). While that decision ended the practice of courts deferring to agencies' statutory interpretations, it did not empower courts to rewrite statutes or substitute judicial policy preferences for agency expertise. Applying the surplusage canon — a foundational principle of statutory interpretation — the brief argues the statute's text clearly affords the Fed the flexibility to determine what fee levels are "reasonable and proportional," and that courts have no license to subtract that flexibility based on disagreement with the agency's policy choices.

You can find the full brief here.

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The Bull Moose Project, a 501(c)(4) organization based in Washington, D.C., advocates for policies that put America's workers and communities first.

Contact: Aiden Buzzetti President, Bull Moose Project aiden@bullmooseproject.org

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