CFPB v. Townstone Financial

In 2020, after a three-year investigation during the first Trump administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a case again Townstone Financial, Inc. It then litigated the case for over four years, before entering into a settlement agreement with Townstone. The agreement was memorialized in a stipulated final judgment entered by the district court. In March 2025, the CFPB and Townstone filed a joint motion asking the court to vacate the final judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6), which may provide relief from a judgment in exceptional circumstances.

Public Citizen, writing on behalf of itself and 13 other consumer, fair housing, and civil rights groups, filed an amicus brief opposing that motion. The brief explains that the requirements for application of Rule 60(b)(6) are not present here and that granting the motion would invite a host of similar docket-clogging motions at the beginning of each new presidential administration, undermining public confidence in the finality of judicial orders and wasting the courts’ and agencies’ time rehashing closed cases.