Way too often this past half-century-plus, we have had to rely on the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to save US from DC.
Congress, the Legislative Branch, has almost entirely forfeited its constitutional role of legislating – to the many millions of unelected bureaucrats in the Executive Branch.
Which leaves the Judicial Branch responsible for saving the US from DC. Which means, ultimately, the Supreme Court.
SCOTUS, unfortunately, has been a highly unreliable backstop to DC’s very many excesses.
SCOTUS soon has yet another chance – to right yet another wrong.
Everything About the CFPB Is Unconstitutional:
“(T)he worst portion of (2011’s) Dodd-Frank (banking legislation)- was the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)….
“(T)he CFPB is totally unconstitutional. Because it purports to be an ‘independent agency.’”
DC loves end-running the Constitution with “independent agencies.” It is perhaps the preeminent way the Legislative Branch forfeits its role to the Executive Branch….
DC’s ‘Independent Agency’ Scam
The Supreme Court has already once ruled the CFPB to be unconstitutional. Because the “independent agency” scam – is unconstitutional.
In 2020….
Supreme Court Holds That CFPB’s Structure Is Unconstitutional:
“On June 29, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, finally resolving the question that has dogged the new agency since its inception: Is the leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) constitutional?
“Writing for a 5-4 majority, Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the CFPB structure – ‘an independent agency that wields significant executive power and is run by a single individual who cannot be removed by the President unless certain statutory criteria are met’ – violates the Constitution’s separation of powers.”
How does the CFPB receive a SCOTUS ruling deeming it unconstitutional in 2020 – and still exist in 2023?
Because of a variant on the old joke:
Q: Why don’t sharks eat lawyers?
A: Professional courtesy.
No one in DC – is going to do anything real about anyone else in DC.
So we don’t get constitutional government – we get Constitutional Government Theatre:
“(T)he most important aspect of Seila Law is not the headline constitutional defect, but the remedy. Choosing ‘a scalpel rather than a bulldozer,’ the Court did not invalidate the CFPB.”
So even SCOTUS – didn’t take SCOTUS’s ruling seriously.
So we’re still stuck with the CFPB three years later.
Except DC should have learned LONG ago – what Thomas Sowell so exquisitely encapsulated:
“Reality does not go away when it is ignored.”
SCOTUS had a chance to end the unconstitutional CFPB. It did not.
But the CFPB remains unconstitutional. A reality SCOTUS did not make go away by ignoring it.
So SCOTUS again has a CFPB constitutionality question afore it….
Supreme Court Should Rein In the Rogue Regulators at the Unconstitutional CFPB:
“This time, the justices will consider…the CFPB’s funding mechanism (which circumvents the standard legislative appropriations process) violates the Constitution’s appropriations clause, which vests in Congress the power of the purse….
“(The CFPB) effectively funds itself by drawing monies from the Federal Reserve, another agency Congress insulated from ordinary democratic accountability.”
This is the “independent agency” idiocy – squared. The unconstitutional Fed – is funding the unconstitutional CFPB:
“(B)y removing financial regulation from America’s ordinary democratic political process, Congress violated the Constitution. Congress built the agency with far too much insulation from presidential scrutiny and other constitutional checks and balances.”
The US is supposed to be a republic. As in Article IV, Section IV of the Constitution:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.”
What is “A Republican Form of Government?” Glad you asked…:
“(A) country that is governed by elected representatives and by an elected leader (such as a president).”
The key word being – elected.
No one elected the bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve.
And they are funding the bureaucrats at the CFPB – whom no one elected.
Unconstitutionality – squared.
Having ignored this reality once – SCOTUS is faced with it again.
Here’s hoping this time they don’t ignore it.