Last week, a panel of conservative judges from the D.C. Circuit Court challenged the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the only federal agency solely dedicated to protecting consumers’ financial interests. Here’s a look at what that decision really means:
Don't disarm consumer protection: Our view, USA Today
“Despite all their complaints about the new financial cop on the beat, the big banks remain highly profitable … But apparently, the bankers still pine for the good old days, before the CFPB was on patrol and before consumers had a champion to protect them from financial industry excesses.”
Stop the insanity over the consumer protection board, Washington Post
“Critics of the CFPB, many of whom have a biased agenda to back the financial industry, don’t want a consumer watchdog holding these corporations accountable. We would be foolish to allow them to succeed at that mission.”
A conservative federal judge takes an overheated slap at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Los Angeles Times
“[H]is tone was grossly overheated, and openly ideological. So much so that one must think about what was really going on here. The answer is that the ruling looks like another conservative attack on a consumer-friendly agency that Republicans absolutely hate.”
Court's CFPB Ruling Is Part of a Dangerous Trend, Mother Jones
“On a more abstract level, though, it represents a disturbing trend from conservatives. In this case, their real problem with the CFPB is that they don't want to regulate the financial industry at all.”
A Court Ruled Against Elizabeth Warren’s Brainchild—and Saved It, The New Republic
“So when a three-judge panel on the conservative D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that CFPB has an unconstitutional governing structure, giving Republicans their most desired wish, you’d think they’d have leapt for joy. But the agency will continue to function, and the ruling (which will be appealed) won’t come into play until the country elects a president—a Republican, almost surely—who wants to stop protecting the public from financial predators.”
The D.C. Circuit’s gratuitous ruling on CFPB constitutionality, Reuters
“Here’s the interesting thing, though: According to Judge Karen Henderson, writing in partial dissent, Judge Kavanaugh did not need to engage in his constitutional analysis at all – and, in fact, under the doctrine of constitutional avoidance, should not have reached a conclusion about the constitutionality of the CFPB’s structure.”
PHH v. CFPB: A Blessing in Disguise for the CFPB, CreditSlips.org
“Finally, the decision takes the wind out of sails of House GOP efforts to gut the CFPB by turning it into an ineffective commission structure and subjecting its budget to appropriations. The House GOP has been attacking the CFPB as relentlessly as it has attacked Obamacare, and the DC Circuit just took away their leading argument, namely that the CFPB has to be removed wholesale because its structure is unconstitutional. Not so said the court.”
U.S. Court of Appeals Hits Consumer Financial Agency, Rejects $109 Million in Fines, BlackPress USA
“The decision, which may be appealed, runs contrary to the original intent in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act: removing partisan shenanigans from financial regulation and creating an independent federal office to have financial fairness as its sole focus.”
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