The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that the organization structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional. The surprise ruling has elicited a wide range of responses from different sides of the partisan aisle, but the ultimate implications (if there are any) remain unclear.
Even the court, in a ruling written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, said it rejected the notion of shutting down the CFPB and that the bureau instead “will continue to operate and perform its many duties.” But the court ruled that the CFPB should do so “as an executive agency akin to other executive agencies headed by a single person, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury.”