Supreme Court order secures lawyer who will support constitutionality of CFPB’s single-director structure.
10/28/2019 10:30
Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement will defend a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling rejecting challenges to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership structure when the issue is before the U.S. Supreme Court early next year, according to a blog post by SCOTUSblog reporter Amy L. Howe.
Last week, the Supreme Court granted Seila Law’s petition for Writ of Certiorari requesting that it review Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a case that challenges the constitutionality of the CFPB’s leadership structure, ACA International previously reported.
In Seila Law, a Ninth Circuit panel unanimously ruled the CFPB’s single director structure was constitutional, prompting Seila to file a brief asking the Supreme Court to hear the case to review that finding.
“Before the justices granted review last week, the CFPB had agreed with the law firm challenging the CFPB’s structure that the restrictions are unconstitutional,” Howe reports. “But [with Clement’s appointment] the debate will not be one-sided.”
The accounts receivable management industry has a huge stake in the case and will continue to monitor the legal challenge as it unfolds.
At issue for the Supreme Court to decide is whether the provision of the law allowing the president to remove the agency's director only for cause violates the constitutional separation of powers, ACA previously reported. While serving on the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2016, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored a majority panel opinion in PHH Corp v. CFPB declaring the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection unconstitutional. The New York Times called this opinion one of Kavanaugh’s most well-known among the more than 300 opinions he contributed to during his appointment to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006.
Read more on the case in ACA’s coverage: SCOTUS to Hear Possible Game-Changing CFPB Case.