Preliminary Injunction Granted in Case Against Illegal CFPB Shutdown
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, a judge granted a motion from the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), Public Citizen Litigation Group, and Gupta Wessler LLP for a preliminary injunction in our lawsuit against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought. In a 112-page opinion, the judge agreed that the defendants were trying to eliminate the agency and that we are likely to prevail in showing that the law does not permit them to do so.
Plaintiffs in the case are NTEU, National Consumer Law Center, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Virginia Poverty Law Center, CFPB Employee Association, and Ted Steege.
“Dismantling the CFPB would have devastating consequences for consumers across the country,” said Wendy Liu, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group. “The Court’s order is a crucial step towards preserving the agency and blocking the Trump administration’s illegal attempt to shutter it.”
As the court’s opinion states, “The defendants were fully engaged in a hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency entirely – firing all probationary and term-limited employees without cause, cutting off funding, terminating contracts, closing all of the offices, and implementing a reduction in force (‘RIF’) that would cover everyone else. These actions were taken in complete disregard for the decision Congress made 15 years ago, which was spurred by the devastating financial crisis of 2008 and embodied in the United States Code, that the agency must exist and that it must perform specific functions to protect the borrowing public.”
Additional information on the case:
Established by Congress in response to the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB is tasked with protecting consumers from predatory practices by financial institutions. Since its inception, the agency has recovered billions of dollars for American citizens and helped create a fairer, more transparent financial marketplace.
In defiance of Congress’s role in our constitutional system and the separation of powers, President Trump openly declared his intent to “totally eliminate” the CFPB, and he and Secretary Vought acted quickly to carry out that direction. Their actions have caused mass confusion and imposed significant and irreparable harm on consumers across the country.