TOPEKA, Kan. (Legal Newsline) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has joined the attorneys general of 14 other states in filing a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia arguing that the current setup of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) violates the Constitution.
Schmidt and the other attorneys general claim that the statute shielding the CFPB director from removal by the president is unconstitutional, as is the current insulation of the CFPB’s budget from control by Congress, according to the brief filed earlier this month.
“The CFPB possesses the power to pre-empt or displace broad swaths of state regulatory authority,” the attorneys general wrote in their filing. “But the agency’s structure permits it to exercise this broad pre-emptive power without undertaking the careful deliberative processes that would be required of the elected branches of the federal government or of an independent agency headed by a multi-member board."
The attorneys general went on to say that the consumer agency has less incentive to follow the traditional interests of federalism and respecting states' rights.
"This reduced incentive increases the risk of federal agency encroachment on state prerogatives," the attorneys general said.