Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this week denying a request for a preliminary injunction to remove President Trump’s appointment of a temporary director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Several of the same constitutional issues raised by Attorney General Paxton in a 13-state friend-of-the-court brief were echoed by the District Court in its opinion, which was issued Wednesday.
Last November, the CFPB’s director resigned and attempted to appoint his own successor, Leandra English, who filed a lawsuit to block President Trump’s temporary appointee, Mick Mulvaney. In his brief, Attorney General Paxton emphasized that the president’s personnel move is supported both by the Constitution itself and by the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
“I am pleased that the district court recognized that longstanding legal precedent supports the president’s power to appoint personnel in this situation. The CFPB was operating in an unaccountable and unauthorized fashion,” Attorney General Paxton said. “Accountable government requires some oversight over our independent regulators. The CFPB’s rogue behavior cannot go on unchecked.”
English argued that the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act – which created the CFPB – gave her former boss power to appoint temporary leadership and denied the president authority over the decision. However, the legality of President Trump’s appointment was confirmed by the White House Counsel’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the CFPB’s own general counsel.