The political independence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may end not with a bang — after a protracted battle in Congress — but with a whimper, the victim of a bureaucratic rule that prevents the agency from appealing a pending court case to the Supreme Court.
The D.C. Circuit ruled in October that the CFPB’s single-director structure was incompatible with its status as an independent federal agency, finding that its leader would have to serve at the pleasure of the president to avoid violating the Constitution’s separation of powers.
Although the CFPB is appealing that decision, its ultimate ability to overturn it may hinge on whether the Justice Department allows it to move the case forward. With President-elect Donald Trump due to take the reins of Justice in January, there are growing doubts that the CFPB can prevail.
