On Friday afternoon, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration cannot shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — and must undo the actions already taken to dismantle it — while the case proceeds.
Here are a few things the judge said in her 112-page ruling (when she says “plaintiffs” she is talking about our side):
Trump officials were “fully engaged in a hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency entirely ... 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.”
“Before it can step in, the Court must conclude that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claims, that they would suffer irreparable harm in the meantime if the Court lets the lawsuit run its course, and that an injunction would be in the public interest. The Court has made those findings, and the answer is an overwhelming yes: the Court can and must act.”
“The elimination of the agency was interrupted only because plaintiffs sought and obtained the Court’s intervention on the day the overwhelming majority of the employees were going to be fired.”
The administration’s “contention they were intent on doing what the law required them to do collapsed like a balloon at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.”
Here’s more about this case:
- In 2008, Wall Street’s reckless greed set off a worldwide financial crisis.
- So Congress, exercising its constitutional authority to regulate commerce, established a new federal agency — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) — to protect the American people from wrong or unfair conduct by Big Banks and other giant financial institutions.
- Public Citizen played a major role in the creation of the CFPB.
- Since its creation in 2011, the CFPB has recovered billions for everyday Americans and helped create a fairer, more transparent financial marketplace.
- Donald Trump has openly declared his intent to “totally eliminate” the CFPB.
- The Trump administration cannot lawfully dismantle the CFPB — its attempt to do so is in defiance of the Constitution’s separation of powers.
- The attempt to eliminate the CFPB has imposed significant harm on consumers all across the country.
Based on a careful review of the facts showing the administration’s unlawful conduct, the judge issued an order requiring the administration to maintain “the agency’s existence until this case has been resolved on the merits, reinstating and preserving the agency’s contracts, work force, data, and operational capacity, and protecting and facilitating the employees’ ability to perform statutorily required activities.”
Public Citizen, along with co-counsel, is representing the National Treasury Employees Union, CFPB Employee Association, NAACP, National Consumer Law Center, Ted Steege, and Virginia Poverty Law Center in this case.
This is one of seven active lawsuits Public Citizen is pursuing against the Trump regime so far.
From Public Citizen, March 29, 2025: