Court upholds constitutionality of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

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[Critics] argue that its single-director structure and funding outside the congressional appropriations process -- it is financed by the Federal Reserve -- make it unaccountable, a core issue at the heart of the court case.

The case is separate from another legal battle that's raging over the leadership of the agency.... The same court that ruled in Wednesday's decision will hear English's appeal to halt any further action by Mulvaney as acting director.

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Mulvaney has taken a number of steps to rein in the bureau since he took over, including reconsidering the CFPB's rule curbing payday lending and requesting no additional funding from the Fed for the bureau for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018.

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Wednesday's decision involved a case brought by PHH Corp., a New Jersey mortgage service provider that the CFPB targeted for an enforcement action in 2015. PHH challenged the bureau's leadership structure in court and initially won a ruling in its favor.

But the bureau's appeal preserved its single-director leadership -- as opposed to a bipartisan commission that some critics would prefer -- before Cordray left to run for governor in Ohio.

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Gupta, who also represents English in her challenge to Mulvaney, said the court's decision to send PHH's fine back to the CFPB for review cast doubt on whether the case would be appealed again to the Supreme Court.

"I could see an argument that they got what they asked for and so they don't have the ability to take this to Supreme Court," he said.

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Gupta argued that Wednesday's ruling could hold implications for English's case.

"It does have implications for the case, no question, because this is a resounding affirmation of the independence that Congress wanted for this agency," he said. "The White House OMB director is effectively running the agency."