Court rules consumer bureau's structure unconstitutional, allows it to operate

[Geee]

The Hill:

The nation’s second-most powerful court ruled Tuesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) structure is unconstitutional, but did not shut down the agency.

 

In its 2-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the independent agency's structure is unconstitutional because it’s headed by a single director instead of a multi-member board. The court, however, allowed the CFPB to continue to function by giving the president the power to remove and supervise the director.

 

“With the for-cause provision severed, the President now will have the power to remove the director at will and to supervise and direct the director," Judge Brett Kavanaugh said in the court’s 110-page opinion.

 

“The CFPB therefore will continue to operate and to perform its many duties, but will do so as an executive agency akin to other executive agencies headed by a single person, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury.”

 

The court said CFPB’s concentration of executive power in a "single, unaccountable, unchecked" director departs from historical practice and poses a greater risk of arbitrary decision making.