On Friday, a federal judge issued an order for the leadership of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was appointed by President Donald Trump, to stop their initiative to disband the agency.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in favor of the CFPB’s employee union, which had taken legal action against acting director Russell Vought last month. The lawsuit aimed to prevent him from significantly reducing the agency’s workforce. Notably, personnel from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency were also implicated in attempts to fire CFPB employees.
Judge Berman Jackson declared, “Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee’s performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee.”
This decision marks another instance where the judiciary has intervened to block the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal agency staffing and undermine agencies it disfavors. The order reinvigorates the CFPB, the sole federal body explicitly tasked with consumer protection within the financial sector beyond traditional banks. Critics had previously accused the agency, under former director Rohit Chopra, of exceeding its mandate.
Berman Jackson’s ruling mandates that Vought must reinstate all probationary and term employees dismissed after he assumed leadership at the CFPB. She also instructed him not to “delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data,” and annulled Vought’s February halt on certain agency operations.
“To ensure that employees can perform their statutorily mandated functions, the defendants must provide them with either fully-equipped office space or permission to work remotely,” Berman Jackson stated.
Her extensive ruling also required the CFPB to maintain its consumer complaint portal and ensure it addressed those concerns. The CFPB is further instructed to reverse any contract cancellations executed under Vought’s leadership and must submit a compliance report by April 4.
The court’s directive applies to all CFPB leaders and any individuals working in tandem with them, including those from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Attempts to reach Vought’s spokesperson for a response were not immediately successful.
In a separate, detailed 112-page opinion, Berman Jackson elaborated on her reasons for granting the union’s request for a preliminary injunction, referencing Musk’s Feb. 7 social media comment, “CFPB RIP.”
“The Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion,” she wrote.
This injunction aims to sustain the agency’s operations until the case is resolved definitively, preserving the CFPB’s contracts, workforce, data, and capability to function, while protecting employees’ capacity to carry out their legally required duties.
