Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Massachusetts

Re: payroll check cashing fee ?

In the past Banks were required to cash checks as presented by a person with adequate identification when drawn upon the bank to which presented. There may be circumstances, such as amount of check, requiring supervisor or manager OK to help prevent fraud, or for homeland security compliance. Since your seems meerly a paycheck, there should not be this treatment. Check with your state and federal banking authorities on this. Call your senator or congressman. Practical experience shows that Banks and other "service providers" will do just about anything and say just about anything,(through their lower level employees),in order to get their hands on your money and keep it as long as possible. In short, the banks all want your money and mine to be kept on deposit for as long as possible so they can use your money to make GIGANTIC PROFITS, and not pay you a cent for it and in fact, in place of proper interest payments to the millions of customers they routinely scam like this, they promise "no fees" or some type of usually worthless "gift" or "incentive". It is shameful, unethical behavior. We have grown complacent because our elected representatives are controlled by big financial interests. In order to get their "buddies" re-elected and exert power over us, the banks lobby for those who will neglect to watch out for the average citizen in any meaningful way. You could contact your "independent" media and ask them to do an expose on what the banks are doing with these and other unbelievably egregious fees. The long range "legal" answer in short is that even if some law or regulation of banking (that our lame-duck legislators and even lamer executives) allowed to pass gives banks more control over our finances, at the expense of our rights, then the legal response should be to mount a federal constitutional challenge to such acts and egregious laws. CHANGE THE LAW if necessary, and in the mean time,(since this is supposed to still be a government of, by and for the people), elect new representatives at the local, state and national levels who truly listen to the voices of the average citizen;not the big-monied, yacht and island buying conglomerates who could care less and probably laugh all the way to their "bank" when citizens have to scape by and don't have gas money to get home after working all week and trying to just cash their paychecks. When you compare historical banking practices to those of today, the likely violation of rights is more clear and questions of basic constitutional property rights arise. More surely and insidiously this is because elected officials foster an environment where this kind of legal treachery can flourish, to the continuing loss of all but the most powerful. See if you can get some new people in office, good citizens elected by good citizens. I believe the best politicians are not the ultra-educated "professionals" but the average citizen as envisioned by our founding fathers.