Allied Progress Joins Consumer Advocates in Urging SCOTUS to Keep the CFPB Strong and Independent
WASHINGTON, DC (March 3rd, 2020) – Consumer watchdog group Allied Progress joined fellow consumer advocates at the steps of the Supreme Court to urge justices to keep the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau strong and independent. As the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could undermine the structure of the CFPB or even result in the entire agency being ruled unconstitutional, consumer advocates outside protested the influence of big corporations and predatory special interests over the court. *FULL VIDEO OF EVENT.
Allied Progress Director Derek Martin said: “We’re here at the Supreme Court for one reason: financial predators can’t tolerate independent federal regulators that hold them accountable. The case before the court today isn’t about some complicated regulatory principal – it’s about a bunch of bad actors in the financial marketplace who don’t want strong rules or strong regulators governing their behavior. … People with an axe to grind against the federal consumer bureau are not credible voices to challenge its independence – or indeed its very existence. And now a corporate-friendly Supreme Court that includes a highly conflicted Justice Brett Kavanaugh may decide to give these bad actors what they want – a political regulator who will bend to their will.” *FULL REMARKS HERE
Other groups represented at the event include Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Popular Democracy Action, Demand Justice, Demand Progress, Indivisible, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Public Justice, SEIU, U.S. PIRG, and Tax March. The groups highlighted the critical role the CFPB has played in returning billions of dollars to consumers and the Roberts Court’s consistent ruling in favor of corporations.
Allied Progress recently released a report that found nearly 80 percent of those who filed anti-CFPB amicus briefs to SCOTUS in Seila Law v. CFPB have financial motives in seeing the bureau stripped of its independence or struck down entirely: AlliedProgress.org/SCOTUSReport
Allied Progress also previously joined Demand Justice and others in calling on Justice Brett Kavanaugh to recuse himself from this case because he has already issued opinions on the constitutionality of the CFPB’s single-director structure.
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