The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today unanimously declared the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is constitutional, rejecting the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling in CFPB v. CFSA and writing that it “cannot find any support” for the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Supreme Court precedent.
On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the payday lenders trade association in ruling that the CFPB’s funding structure is unconstitutional because it does not go through Congressional appropriations. This line of attack toward the CFPB – via its funding – has nothing to do with actually caring about the constitution and everything to do with the big banks and predatory lenders trying to escape the oversight and enforcement actions of an agency focusing on protecting and defending consumers.
Charging that the single director structure — which helps make the bureau an effective consumer regulator, if that director is committed to the public interest — was unconstitutional evolved into a mainstay of attacks from Wall Street, predatory lenders, and their friends in Congress and the administration.