Forbes.com has an interesting tidbit on the Senator Warren’s baby, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:
Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a decision last year declaring the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency unconstitutional because no one including the President had the power to fire its director (a structure CFPB supporters including Sen. Elizabeth Warren say protects it from political meddling).
“Because of their massive power and the absence of Presidential supervision and direction, independent agencies pose a significant threat to individual liberty and to the constitutional system of separation of powers and checks and balances,” wrote Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee who also served as counsel in the Bush administration.
So do judges, oddly enough, but I suppose the difference is that the agency doesn’t function as a check on another governmental agency. In the referenced article, the actual modification:
In a decision reversing $109 million in fines the board ordered against mortgage lender PHH Corp., the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that CFPB Director Richard Cordray must be subject to firing by President Obama.
If the CFPB doesn’t appeal, or loses the appeal, then Trump can fire the director whenever a complainant gets Trump’s ear and whines a bit. I don’t expect much in the way of adult supervision.
