A unanimous Ninth Circuit panel has ruled in CFPB v. Seila Law LLC that the CFPB’s single-director-removable-only-for-cause structure is constitutional.
Appellant Seila Law had asked the Ninth Circuit to overturn the district court’s refusal to set aside a Bureau civil investigative demand, arguing that the CID was invalid because the CFPB’s structure is unconstitutional. In rejecting the constitutional challenge, the Ninth Circuit relied on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, which in the Ninth Circuit’s view, “indicate that the for-cause removal restriction protecting the CFPB’s Director does not ‘impede the President’s ability to perform his constitutional duty’ to ensure that the laws are faithfully executed.” According to the Ninth Circuit, “the Supreme Court is of course free to revisit those precedents, but we are not.”