Judge blocks CFPB firings amid Treasury labor union lawsuit

A federal judge temporarily blocked the mass firing of employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Friday after an agreement was reached between the Department of Justice and the National Treasury Employees Union. The consent order signed by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson also prevents the Trump administration from deleting or removing CFPB data and transferring or returning any of the bureau’s funds.

The ruling comes after labor unions representing federal employees sued President Donald Trump and the acting directors of federal agencies who were targeted in Trump’s executive order for workplace optimization. That includes Treasury Secretary Russell Vought, who was acting director of the CFPB when the suit was filed. The next court hearing on the lawsuit will take place on March 3.

Trump takes swift action to dismantle the bureau

Vought moved swiftly over the last week to dismantle the CFPB, ordering work to be stopped, closing the headquarters and cutting off its funding. Jonathan McKernan was named acting director of the CFPB on Tuesday and the bureau has fired more than 100 employees since then — a first batch of about 70 new or probationary employees and a second larger group of employees hired for two or four year terms, according to NPR. The bureau’s total number of employees is about 1,700.

Federal trade unions fire back

Federal trade unions filed the lawsuit on Wednesday and the court hearing on Friday means any more mass firings are on hold. Under the judge’s consent order, CFPB employees can’t be fired for reasons unrelated to their work performance or conduct. It also stops the bureau from trying to redirect its funding, which comes from the Federal Reserve system. The lawsuit asserts that “while the President is responsible for the enforcement of federal laws,
Congress alone has the power of the purse with which to fund or defund agencies
and their activities.”

The CFPB had already agreed on Wednesday to a preliminary injunction on any efforts to disrupt its funding or shut down the department as part of a lawsuit from the city of Baltimore and the Economic Action Maryland Fund.

CFPB data is a key concern

Importantly, the newest consent order blocks the Trump administration from deleting or transferring the CFPB’s data, which DOGE employees started accessing on Feb. 5. The lawsuit includes a declaration by the CFPB’s former chief technologist, Eric Meyer, that stated that he believed the databases holding the CFPB’s data “will soon be deleted.” 

Meyer wrote: “I am preparing this declaration to ensure that the Court is aware of the imminent risk that twelve years’ of critical CFPB records, which belong to the public, will be irretrievably lost and cause serious and sweeping damage unless the Court takes action to preserve the status quo in the face of efforts to dismantle the CFPB.” 

More resources:
Updated list of Trump actions that affect housing
A timeline of what’s happening at the CFPB under Trump