Consumer Financial Protection Bureau V. Community Financial Services Association Of America, Limited

Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited (Docket 22–448) is a pending United States Supreme Court case related to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding mechanism.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 3, 2023
Full case name	Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, et al.
Docket no.	22-448
Argument	Oral argument
Questions presented
Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that the statute providing funding to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), 12 U.S.C. 5497, violates the Appropriations Clause, U.S. Const. Art. I, § 9, Cl. 7, and in vacating a regulation promulgated at a time when the CFPB was receiving such funding.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Clarence Thomas · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan Neil Gorsuch · Brett Kavanaugh Amy Coney Barrett · Ketanji Brown Jackson

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 as part of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Its structure included a director that could not be fired by the President except for cause, and the ability to request funding from the Federal Reserve rather than the United States Congress. In Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (2020), the Supreme Court of the United States held the CFPB director's removal protections were unconstitutional.

Lower Courts

The Community Financial Services Association of America, a trade group for the payday lending industry, filed a lawsuit in 2018 challenging a CFPB rule restricting payday lending. The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas upheld the rule. The CFSAA appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which in October 2022 upheld the rule against an Administrative Procedure Act challenge, but held it must be vacated because it was created when the agency was funded by the Federal Reserve. The Fifth Circuit held this funding mechanism was unconstitutional.

Less than a month after the Fifth Circuit decided the case, the CFPB filed a petition for a writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court, and the Biden administration asked for the Supreme Court to "fast track" the case to be heard during the current 2022 Supreme Court term. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on February 27, 2023, and denied the motion to expedite consideration of the case. Oral argument was held on October 3, 2023. The case was argued, on behalf of the CFPB, by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar and, on behalf of the CFSAA, by former Solicitor General Noel Francisco.