Bank Trading, Bhopal Rulings Are Upheld

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact lower court rulings allowing certain state-chartered banks to trade securities and keeping in India a lawsuit against Union Carbide stemming from the 1984 Bhopal disaster.

State-chartered banks that are not members of the Federal Reserve System were permitted to continue trading stocks and bonds when the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to a lower court ruling by two trade groups.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, in keeping with a recent deregulatory trend, ruled last April that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. didn’t violate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 by permitting such banks to move into the securities business.

The Depression-era law was passed by Congress in response to a wave of bank failures many saw as the result of stock market speculation by the banking industry.

In the case involving Union Carbide, the Supreme Court, without comment, refused to move to the United States a massive lawsuit against the Danbury, Conn., company following the 1984 Bhopal chemical plant disaster that killed more than 2,000 people.

In other cases Monday, the Supreme Court:

- Left intact a Michigan law permitting a ban of car sales on Sundays while allowing other businesses to remain open.

- Told a federal appeals court to review its ruling requiring arbitration for Delta’s merger with Western.

- Agreed to decide whether companies may violate antitrust laws when they lobby organizations that play a prominent role in influencing business legislation.