Courts

CFPB Funding Held Constitutional, Samuel Alito Gets Dragged For Saying Otherwise

The Fifth Circuit takes its licks too.

By Kathryn Rubino on May 16, 2024 3:45 pm
Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito And Elena Kagan Testify Before The House Appropriations Committee

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This morning in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Ass’n, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the CFPB’s funding mechanism and saved the regulator. The decision was 7-2 with Justice Clarence Thomas — joined by every liberal on the Bench — writing the majority.

Thomas’s opinion lays out a straightforward case for the CFPB’s funding, which by statute, receives its money from the Federal Reserve. “Under the Appropriations Clause, an appropriation is simply a law that authorizes expenditures from a specified source of public money for designated purposes,” Thomas said. He continued, “The statute that provides the Bureau’s funding meets these requirements. We therefore conclude that the Bureau’s funding mechanism does not violate the Appropriations Clause.”

Seems simple, right? Well, not according to the dissent, penned by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Neil Gorsuch. In a dissent running 25 pages, Alito trots out a supposedly originalist analysis of the CFPB’s funding to find it unconstitutional. But the truth is, he wanted to find the funding mechanism unconstitutional for his own reasons — which I’m sure are entirely UNRELATED to the generous gifts he receives from billionaire/noted CFPB critic Paul Singer — and jury-rigged his rationale on the backend.

And he’s getting dragged for his nakedly partisan efforts.

It’s so bad, even Clarence Thomas got in on the pile on.

Alito’s dissent is a deeply unserious affair and the nation’s economy is lucky it’s only a dissent.

But the jokes about it *are* pretty funny.

Today’s other big loser — the Fifth Circuit (talk about unserious). It was their decision holding the CFPB’s funding unconstitutional that was overturned today. The Circuit continues their mission to move the Overton window of jurisprudence to the right so that the Supreme Court doesn’t look quite as radical by comparison.

While sane folks may celebrate that the CFPB — and our economy — lives to fight another day, it’s a good reminder that too many powerful jurists want to watch it all burn.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].