Title: Closing the Financial Privacy Loophole: Defining 'Access' in the Right to Financial Privacy Act
Abstract: The privacy of financial records is under siege: First, financial records are excluded from Fourth Amendment protection because of the third-party doctrine, created by the Miller opinion and its progeny. Second, a case making its way through the federal judiciary is asserting a cramped interpretation of the RFPA, which, if upheld, would allow banks to circumvent statutory privacy protections by simply releasing customer information into the public record. Third, in deciding Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, the Supreme Court left open the possibility of lower courts deciding that statutory violations are not injuries at all — an outcome that would strip a customer of his ability to sue under the RFPA if a bank releases his information. Thus, despite Congress’s attempt to safeguard financial records from unwarranted government intrusion, the financial privacy of Americans is being threatened in all levels of the judiciary system.