The Center applauds the en banc order of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in NTEU v. Vought. The June 19th order denied the Trump administration’s attempt to continue illegally dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB), an independent agency created to be free from political pressure or financial motivation.
Recognizing the need for legislative action in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress created the CFPB to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices, and ensure a fair and transparent marketplace. Between its creation in 2011 and 2024, the Agency returned more than $20 billion to over 205 million consumers. In January 2025, however, President Trump launched a concerted attack on the agency. He fired then-Director Rohit Chopra, appointing first Scott Bessent and then Russell Vought as Acting Director. Both instructed CFPB employees to halt work and enforcement activity. Acting Director Vought also instructed CFPB employees to cease any communications with the public, including the very consumers the CFPB is required to protect. Vought then fired probationary and term employees, while placing remaining employees on administrative leave and ordering them to cease work entirely.
Calling these actions an unlawful executive attack on a legislatively created agency, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), along with consumer law organizations, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the shutdown. After evidentiary hearings, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson determined that the defendants had illegally attempted to dismantle and disable the agency in its entirety. The court entered a preliminary injunction against the CFPB and Director Vought to stop the bulldozing of the CFPB and unwind any steps already taken while the underlying lawsuit continued.
The Administration appealed the preliminary injunction. The Center, on behalf of 39 legal services and advocacy groups, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals (first with the panel and then with the en banc court) in defense of Judge Jackon’s order preventing the illegal shutdown. A divided three-judge panel initially vacated the injunction, but the full D.C. Circuit reinstated it. Acting CFPB Director Vought, recognizing that he could not entirely eliminate the agency, then developed a plan to disable it instead by firing (only) two-thirds of its employees. Vought then sought to dissolve the preliminary injunction in light of this purported change in policy. The question ultimately went back to the en banc D.C. Circuit, which heard oral argument in February.
Last week, the Court issued a brief order upholding the injunction, thereby denying the Administration’s renewed attempt to dismantle an agency created by Congress to protect the American public and the financial marketplace. The order sends the case back to the trial court to examine whether the Administration's new plan for the CFPB cures the legal problems with its initial plan of annihilation. In the meantime, the injunction remains in place, blocking Acting Director Vought from firing more than 1,000 CFPB employees.
The Center congratulates plaintiffs and their counsel on another victory in this ongoing case.