CFPB Takes Constitutional Fight to D.C. Circuit

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has asked a federal appeals court in Washington to rehear a dispute over the constitutionality of the agency’s power structure.

In October, a three-judge panel of U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the structure of the CFPB, ruling that the agency placed “massive, unchecked power in the hands of a single director.”

In its petition to the full D.C. Circuit, the CFPB argued “a panel of this court has rendered a dramatic and unprecedented ruling that purports to override Congress’s explicit determination to create an independent bureau to exercise regulatory and law enforcement authority,” writes National Law Journal. 

The challenge to the panel ruling could run for months, if not years. Until then, the panel decision’s ruling against the CFPB cannot be enforced.