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Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced this week that she was joining a coalition of 16 other attorneys general to intervene in a federal appeals court case concerning the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
That case – PHH Corporation, et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – is currently before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In that case, the court vacated a $103 million fine the bureau imposed on PHH and further ruled that restrictions on the president’s ability to remove the bureau’s director were unconstitutional. The bureau filed a petition for rehearing of the decision before the entire D.C. Circuit, and that petition is currently pending before the court.
“The CFPB has been a critical partner to Massachusetts in protecting students, homeowners, the elderly, veterans and all consumers against unfair, deceptive and abusive financial practices and products,” Healey said in a statement. “My office and other states are joining together to protect the new consumer agency and the Wall Street Reform Act because the Trump administration has made it clear that it intends to weaken the agency.”
Healey and the other attorneys general argued that the court’s ruling, if allowed to stand, would undermine the power of state attorneys general to protect consumers against abuse in the consumer finance industry and would significantly weaken the bureau’s independence from political pressure and the president.
