Republican judge orders the entire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau eliminated

IAN MILLHISER at Think Progress

https://thinkprogress.org/republican-judge-orders-the-entire-consumer-financial-protection-bureau-eliminated-4a80a1147f2e/

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A Republican federal trial judge held on Thursday that the entire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — all of it — must cease to exist. The case is CFPB v. RD Legal Funding.

Judge Loretta Preska’s decision on this matter can barely even be described as an “opinion” because she devotes less than two pages of analysis to this question before proclaiming that a federal agency must be simply wiped away. Instead, Preska adopts the reasoning of two federal appellate judges who dissented in a similar case holding that the CFPB is, in fact, constitutional. Significantly, a crucial segment of Preska’s conclusions were only shared by one of these dissenting judges — out of a total of ten judges who heard that federal appellate case.

And it gets worse from there. The dissenting opinions Preska relies upon were published on January 31. On May 14, the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Murphy v. NCAA — parts of which are inconsistent with Preska’s conclusion that the entire CFPB must be struck down. Preska’s opinion makes no reference to Murphy. In fact, the judge who literally judge ordered an entire agency to be shut down appears blissfully unaware of Murphy‘s existence.

To explain, the CFPB has a somewhat unusual management structure. Though its Director is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, the Director serves a five year term and can only be removed for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Though most judges to consider the issue believe such a structure to be constitutional, a minority disagree.

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