Judge Denies Trump CFPB’s Bid to Vacate Chicago Redlining Deal

A federal judge rejected an “unprecedented” request to vacate a Biden-era settlement between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a Chicago mortgage lender accused of making racist comments aimed at discouraging Black borrowers.

Undoing the agreement the CFPB reached with Townstone Financial Inc. and its president, Barry Sturner, would “erode public confidence in the finality of judgments,” Judge Franklin U. Valderrama of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in a Thursday ruling.

It would also set a precedent allowing an agency led by a new administration to override agreements reached under previous leaders merely ...