Leading a coalition of 12 states, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting a challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Last month, Seila Law requested Supreme Court review of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit’s ruling that a federal law providing the CFPB’s single director can only be removed for cause is constitutional. The law firm challenged a lower court’s order enforcing a civil investigative demand by the CFPB as order invalid because the CFPB’s structure is unlawful. 

“The CFPB is a rogue agency and its structure violates the Constitution’s separation of powers,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The CFPB’s structure allows for an unelected and unaccountable director to wield more power than any other single official in the U.S. government except the President of the United States. Our founders would never have tolerated so much power being held by a public official who is not held accountable to the President, the Congress, or the People.”

While the 9th  Circuit and the full D.C. District have ruled that the CFPB’s structure is constitutional, two other cases involve a challenge to its constitutionality are currently pending in the circuit courts. The U.S. Department of Justice has previously conceded that the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Paxton is joined on the amicus brief by his counterparts from Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.

Texas originally challenged the constitutionality of the CFPB and its Arbitration Rule in October 2017, filing a multi-state coalition brief with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. A month later, President Trump and Congress rescinded the Arbitration Rule. Attorney General Paxton also led a coalition of states with several friend-of-the-court briefs supporting the president’s authority to appoint an acting CFPB director. 

View the friend-of-the-court brief here.