Dem
51
GOP
49
Get ready for a sentence you don't see every day: Yesterday, writing for the 7-2 majority, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (R-SCOTUS) handed a victory to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) at the expense of the ultra-conservative Fifth Judicial Circuit. In the ruling, Thomas (and his six colleagues) decreed that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) funding structure is entirely legal, despite a Fifth Circuit ruling to the contrary.
The central issue in this case (i.e., CFPB v. Community Financial Services Association) is rather abstruse. For many federal agencies, Congress appropriates a set amount of money each year. For others, including CFPB, Congress sets a cap, and authorizes the agency to draw funds from the Federal Reserve, as needed, up to that cap. Conservatives, many of them in the thrall of corporate interests who don't like oversight, seized on this difference in hopes of having the CFPB, which was the brainchild of Warren before she became a senator, gutted.
Note that when we write "seized on," we don't mean once, or twice, or even three times. On at least half a dozen occasions, anti-CFPB interests tried to make their theory fly in federal court, and each time they were smacked down. Finally, they managed to arrange things to get the case before the Fifth Circuit, and the judges there stood on their heads in order to uphold the plaintiffs' silly argument and (theoretically) slay the CFPB.
Needless to say, the four conservatives who were part of the majority in this decision (Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett) are more than willing to engage in some legal gymnastics on occasion. However, the Fifth Circuit has been kinda out of control for the last several years, especially since Donald Trump stocked it with a bunch of fire-breathing right-wingers. This is a circuit that includes James C. Ho, Matthew J. Kacsmaryk AND Drew B. Tipton, which is about as untethered-to-the-law a trio as you can come up with. Anyhow, the Supremes are getting tired of having to clean up Fifth Circuit messes, and are also cognizant that the judicial branch's reputation is already shaky, and the Fifth Circuiters are not helping. Put it this way: If you're a right-wing judge, and you've lost Clarence Thomas, then you've really gone off the deep end.
So, the CFPB is safe. Meanwhile, expect the Supremes to crack back on at least a few more Fifth Circuit rulings in the near future, just to remind everyone who is, and who is not, in charge. (Z)