The US Supreme Court justices indicated that they are unlikely to disrupt the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. During arguments in Washington on Tuesday, even some of the court’s conservative justices showed support for the agency.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established after the 2008 financial crisis to oversee various consumer financial products, such as mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. Congress granted the bureau the authority to access funding from the Federal Reserve, with a cap that it has never reached.
“I understand your argument that this situation is unusual and unprecedented,” Justice Clarence Thomas stated to a lawyer representing a payday-lending trade group, “but the fact that it’s unprecedented doesn’t necessarily mean it violates the Constitution.”
During a 95-minute discussion on Tuesday, the focus was on a decision by a federal appeals court that the Biden administration believes has cast a legal shadow over all of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) actions since its establishment in 2010. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the bureau’s formation violated the constitutional requirement for congressional approval of government expenditures.
