CFPB’s Flip on Agency Constitutionality Adds More Uncertainty

CFPB Director Kathleen Kraninger settled one question—and created many new ones—about the bureau’s future when she determined that a Dodd-Frank Act provision making the director fireable only for cause was unconstitutional.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Sept. 17 signed on to a Justice Department brief arguing that the for-cause termination provision was unconstitutional and urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a case, Seilia Law LLC v. CFPB, in which a California firm is seeking to get that provision overturned. On the same day, Kraninger sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader ...