The U.S. Supreme Court is reportedly poised to strike down another attempt by former President Barack Obama and liberal extremists to hand unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats power over the lives of everyday Americans.
Since President Donald Trump restored the conservative majority, the high court has been willing to take on cases that wreak of abuse of power. Already the justices have broke the efforts of Obama judges to undermine the authority of the executive branch in areas such as travel bans, securing the borders, and school choice.
And the Obama-era overreach on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has caused something of a constitutional crisis. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has far-reaching power implications.
The untouchable CFPB agency was reportedly the brainchild of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren when Democrats leveled their anger at the financial sector for the collapse during the financial crisis back in 2009. The resulting Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 was reactionary. Although the CFPB had lofty goals of shielding everyday people from predatory lenders, it went too far.
The agency seated a single, independent director that could not be held accountable by either Congress or the president. This was typical of the way Democrats and Obama did things. They felt secure they would insert someone with a like-minded liberal ideology, and the CFPB would work hand-in-glove with their economic policy for each five-year term.
But along comes President Trump and the CFPB now has the power to undermine the America First agenda that has revved up the U.S. economy. From a separation of powers standpoint, the CFPB chief is accountable to no one — not taxpayers, Congress, or the White House. In essence, the CFPB is a mini dictatorship—one with the power to ruin the economy and thwart presidents.
“Unlike other agency heads, the CFPB’s director can only be fired by the president for specified causes. Normally, agency heads serve at the will of the president, an arrangement that makes an appointee more responsive and accountable to the president and, by extension, the American people,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute reportedly stated. “The CFPB budget is taken from the budget of the Federal Reserve, which is the central banking system of the United States. That funding arrangement means the CFPB is not subject to Congress’s ‘power of the purse,’ and it severely worsens the agency’s unaccountability. In effect, the CFPB functions like a fourth branch of government, unauthorized by the Constitution.”
A case that is likely to be decided in the upcoming months by SCOTUS is Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Seila is a debt-consolidation outfit that rejected a request for documents made by the CFPB. The company recognized that the CFPB was constitutionally deficient and sued rather than comply with an investigation led by Obama-appointee Richard Cordray, who came under fire and stepped down.
Liberal politicians such as Sen. Warren may already see the writing on the wall in terms of this agency being put under either the president’s or Congress’ authority. The current director Kathy Kraninger has rolled back much of the Obama-era overreach. However, she has also gone on the record agreeing that the CFPB requires constitutional oversight from the executive or legislative branch.
“The dispute is not merely an academic one: If the justices agree that the restrictions violate the doctrine known as the separation of powers — the idea that the Constitution divides the different functions of government among the executive, judicial and legislative branches — their ruling could potentially unravel all the CFPB’s decisions in the nine years since its creation,” Amy Howe reportedly stated on SCOTUSblog.
The chance of the high court upending the CFPB appears highly likely with the conservative bloc restored. Justice Brett Kavanaugh had already gone on the record objecting to the CFPB before being nominated by President Trump. It seems the age of bureaucracy rule is coming to an end.
