"Its director... must be removable by the president at will": Supreme Court gives president power to fire head of financial watchdog agency created by Elizabeth Warren
From WWW.CBSNEWS.COM
Washington — The Supreme Court ruled Monday the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a consumer watchdog that was the brainchild of Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, is unconstitutional, but stopped short of dismantling the agency.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote "the structure of the CFPB violates the separation of powers."
"The agency may therefore continue to operate, but its director, in light of our decision, must be removable by the president at will," Roberts wrote for the 5-4 court.
The court ruled along ideological lines that the structure of the CFPB violates the Constitution. The high court also found by a vote of 7-2 that the provision of the law dictating the director's removal can be struck down without invalidating the entirety of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which established the consumer agency.
With its ruling, the high court handed a victory to conservatives on Capitol Hill who have long taken aim at the consumer watchdog agency, which was created in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis.
But Warren said in a series of tweets in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the "CFPB is here to stay."
"Even after today's ruling, the CFPB is still an independent agency. The director of that agency still works for the American people. Not Donald Trump. Not Congress. Not the banking industry. Nothing in the Supreme Court ruling changes that," she said.
Kathy Kraninger, the director of the CFPB, said the ruling "finally brings certainty to the operations of the bureau."
"We will continue with our important mission of protecting consumers with no question that we are fully accountable to the president," she said in a statement.
The Justice Department under President Trump and the agency's director argued against the structure of the CFPB, saying it concluded the "statut... (Read more)
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