


An appeals court temporarily halted an order blocking the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in a March 28 opinion that the Trump administration couldn’t unilaterally shut down the CFPB, with the prospect being out of its jurisdiction. On Thursday, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit paused Jackson’s halt. It clarified that its ruling didn’t regard the argument’s merits but rather allowed the courts more time to consider the matter.
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“The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the panel wrote.
The CFPB will remain open and operative during the period of review.
The bureau was one of the earliest and most controversial targets of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) founded the bureau after the 2008 financial crisis to help consumers. Critics argued that it drifted from its original purpose, becoming an opaque agency that abused its authority, pursuing targets such as a community-focused financial lending company.
One of its critics, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), introduced legislation in February to abolish it altogether, saying it had gone “rogue.”
“[T]he reason in particular that the CFPB is especially problematic is because it really operates outside of the purview of even Congress. Sure, the administrator of the CFPB has to come in and testify before Congress, but we all know those hearings — a lot of times a director is basically trying to run out the clock when it comes to meaningful oversight,” he said.
“But when they would put out publications, memos, letters, it would basically have the force of law on companies before they actually went through the full administrative process. You cannot have an agency operating like that, a rogue agency like this. So, in my view, it is more than time for it to be shut down completely,” Donalds added.
TRUMP’S CFPB DISMISSES CASE AGAINST COMMUNITY-FOCUSED FINANCIAL LENDING COMPANY
Acting CFPB director and Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought took several measures to reduce the agency upon assuming the position, including halting investigations and layoffs. This triggered a lawsuit from the National Treasury Employees Union, which argued he and the Trump administration were violating the separation of powers clause of the Constitution by trying to shut it down.
The Trump administration denied it was trying to shut down the bureau. Nevertheless, Jackson ordered it to cease downsizing the agency and rehire fired employees.