A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday, in one of the most significant rulings yet against the administration’s efforts to drastically reduce the federal government.
The new preliminary injunction “maintains the agency’s existence until this case has been resolved on the merits,” Judge Amy Berman Jackson wrote in her 112-page ruling Friday, by “reinstating and preserving the agency’s contracts, workforce, data, and operational capacity, as well as protecting and facilitating the employees’ ability to perform statutorily required activities.”
Jackson’s decision also paves the way for an appeal in a case that will allow President Donald Trump to test his broad theory of executive power against congressional mandates.
She claimed that in the first weeks of the administration, Trump officials “were fully engaged in a hurried effort to dismantle and disable the agency entirely,” with actions taken in “complete disregard” of Congress’ decision to establish the financial watchdog agency in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis.
The litigation to challenge this disassembly “slowed, but did not deter” the administration. Jackson wrote that the moves by the agency’s politically appointed leaders to reverse some of the early shutdown directives “were nothing more than window dressing.”
She stated that the evidence in the case indicated that, rather than stemming from a recognition of statutory mandates requiring that parts of the agency continue to operate, the recent moves to resume some work were “more likely a charade for the Court’s benefit.”
Regardless, she determined that her emergency intervention was required because “the Court’s oversight is the only thing holding the defendants back.”
