Brown

*64 This appeal arises out of the subprime mortgage crisis, a nationwide banking emergency that began in 2007 with the collapse of a housing financing bubble created in large part by an increase in housing speculation and subprime lending practices. This crisis led to a deep recession in the United States and around the globe. California was hit particularly hard. While the recession ended in mid-2009, at least as a definitional matter, persistent high unemployment continued throughout 2012, along with the continuing decline in home values, increase in foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, and the concomitant decrease in state revenue.

In March 2012, the federal government and the attorneys general of 49 states and *418 the District of Columbia (every state except Oklahoma) brought suit in federal court against the nation's five largest mortgage servicers, i.e., Ally (formerly GMAC), Bank of America, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo (collectively, Bank defendants), alleging a number of violations of federal law. The case was resolved by settlement agreement (the National Mortgage Settlement or NMS), the terms of which the federal court formally entered as consent…