A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from shutting down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a preliminary injunction, which means the agency will continue to exist until she can further rule on a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency.
Berman Jackson said the court “can and must act” to save the agency from being shuttered. She noted In her ruling that without court intervention Donald Trump would move quickly to close down agency – set up to protect consumers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
CFPB is responsible for protecting consumers from financial fraud and deceptive practices. It processes consumer complaints and examines banks to protect student loan borrowers.
“If the defendants are not enjoined, they will eliminate the agency before the Court has the opportunity to decide whether the law permits them to do it, and as the defendants’ own witness warned, the harm will be irreparable,” Berman Jackson wrote.
The Independent has previously reported on the lawsuit being brought against the CFPB and Acting Director Russell Vought to challenge the dismantling of the bureau. The plaintiffs include several associations as well as a singular consumer: 83-year-old pastor Eva Steege.
Deepak Gupta, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the ruling “blocks the unprecedented plan to dismantle the CFPB — an agency that Congress created to protect Americans’ financial security. This ruling upholds the Constitution’s separation of powers and preserves the Bureau’s vital work.”
He added: “We’re heartened by the decision and look forward to continuing to press our case in court.”
During a March 10 hearing, Jackson heard testimony about the chaos that erupted inside the agency after government employees were ordered to stop working last month. Trump fired the bureau’s previous director, Rohit Chopra, on February 1.
The president then installed a temporary replacement who ordered the immediate suspension of all agency operations, canceled $100 million in contracts and fired 70 employees.
In an exclusive interview, Steege told The Independent how she had scheduled to meet with officials from the CFPB on February 10, hoping to get $15,000 of student debt forgiven via the nation’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
The day before her meeting, Steege learned that Trump – with muscle Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency – had taken steps to shut down the CFPB.
“The defendants’ unlawful action will have immediate consequences for the Americans that the CFPB was designed by Congress to protect,” according to the suit.
In her ruling Berman Jackson made specific reference to incendiary quotes by Trump, Musk and their allies about the bureau. Musk had posted “CFPB RIP” on X, adding an emoji of a tombstone, while Trump called it “a very important thing to get rid of.”
“In sum, the Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion,” Jackson wrote.
Source: independent.co.uk
