The federal appeals group on Friday suspended some of the district court judge's injunctions, blocked the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and allowed authorities to advance in firing employees from some agencies.
Russell T. Vought, director of the White House budget office, was appointed acting director for the Consumer Affairs Bureau in February and soon began attacking the agency. He closed the headquarters, tried to close its lease, cancelled contracts essential to the department's business, fired hundreds of employees, and nearly all of them.
In a lawsuit filed by the Bureau's staff union and other parties, U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington frozen these actions last month with an injunction that stopped what she said she “had a hurry to completely dismantle and void the agency.” The Department of Justice sued her sentence.
A three-person judge panel in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the government's request to break Judge Jackson's injunction, but it maintained part of her ruling while the government's appeal was ongoing. Specifically, the appeals court said agency leaders can send “forced cuts” notices (the process by which the government implements layoffs) to employees they deemed not necessary to carry out the agency's “legal duties.”
When Congress established the Consumer Bureau in 2011, it allocated numerous tasks to Watchdog Agency, ordering staff to specific positions, including offices supporting student loan borrowers, military service members and older Americans. These mandated obligations were at the heart of the legal battle over the institution, as they would have to fulfill these obligations unless Congress acted.
Vought's team fired more than 200 probation and regular employees to pay most of them back against Judge Jackson's order. The Court of Appeals has clarified how some people will be fired again. Agency leaders may terminate employees after “individualized assessments” of their needs to perform statutory tasks, the ruling said.
However, the court left many of Judge Jackson's orders intact, including the obligation that agency leaders would not delete or destroy most of the bureau's records and data, and that employees would need access to physical office space or the tools they needed to work remotely. The Washington headquarters of the Consumer Bureau has been closed to workers since Vought's arrival and has continued its deadline.
The Court of Appeals facilitated the government's appeal on May 16th and scheduled oral debate.
