Paul Clement Provides Off-Ramp in CFPB High Court Arguments

If Chief Justice John Roberts is looking for a way to avoid ruling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s constitutionality, Paul Clement may have provided him with one.

Clement, the former solicitor general tapped by the Supreme Court to defend the CFPB’s constitutionality, is set to argue Tuesday that Seila Law LLC v. CFPB is the wrong case to test whether the bureau’s’ single-director leadership structure is sound.

Clement’s briefing papers question whether a CFPB civil investigative demand at the center of Seila Law’s challenge is the right kind of case to potentially overturn decades of Supreme Court precedent regarding ...