'A Disgrace': CFPB Union Rips Court for Allowing Trump Assault on Consumer Agency

The head of a union representing employees of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was among those who blasted a Friday ruling from a federal appellate court that lets President Donald Trump continue with an effort to gut the CFPB.

"Today's ruling is a disgrace. It empowers Donald Trump to unilaterally eliminate vital public services established by Congress," said CFPB Union president Cat Farman in a statement. "Without a functioning CFPB, there is less oversight of the biggest banks, which means more fraud and less help for veterans and the elderly who are major targets for financial scams."

The union president took aim at the acting leader of the CFPB, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, and Trump, who has a broader mission to tear apart the federal bureaucracy with his Department of Government Efficiency, previously led by billionaire Elon Musk.

"None of us can stand idly by while Russ Vought and Donald Trump destroy the agency that protects working Americans from financial predators," Farman declared. "CFPB workers aren't giving up our fight to defend the rule of law from executive overreach and protect the hard-earned paychecks of working people from Wall Street greed."

In Friday's 2-1 decision, a panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that a district judge exceeded her authority by blocking the Trump administration's sweeping attack on the federal agency earlier this year. Judge Greg Katsas wrote the new opinion, joined by Judge Neomi Rao; they were both appointed by Trump during his first term.

Judge Nina Pillard—an appointee of former President Barack Obama, who signed the bill that established the CFPB—dissented. She wrote, "The notion that courts are powerless to prevent the president from abolishing the agencies of the federal government that he was elected to lead cannot be reconciled with either the constitutional separation of powers or our nation's commitment to a government of laws."

US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a former Harvard University professor who spearheaded the creation of the CFBP, stressed on social media Friday that "the fight continues."

The Trump appointees' decision will not take effect immediately, giving critics time to seek further appeals. Adina Rosenbaum, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, which represented plaintiffs who sued over attacks on the CFPB, signaled that her organization may take further action.

"The Trump administration does not have the authority to abolish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by Congress and which plays an important role in protecting consumers across the country," Rosenbaum said in a statement.

"The district court found that the defendants were trying to eliminate the agency, and it entered an injunction to prohibit them from doing so while the case is ongoing. The court of appeals should have upheld that injunction to ensure that the administration does not illegally close the agency and deprive consumers of the protections to which they are entitled," she added. "We are strongly considering filing a petition for rehearing en banc."