The new Supreme Court term takes aim at the administrative state
AMID A STORM of ethics concerns and an approval rating stuck at historic lows for a second consecutive year, the Supreme Court returns to action on October 2nd. Battles over gun rights, gender-based employment discrimination and social-media use by public officials loom, as do lingering questions about voting rights, abortion pills and affirmative action. A constitutional challenge to Donald Trump’s candidacy based on his role in the riot at the Capitol on January 6th 2021 could reach the high court as the presidential campaign heats up. But the stars of the term may be a deceptively bland trio of cases that could transform the way the federal government does its work.
A wonky-but-weighty hearing will greet the justices on their second day back in robes. In the snappily named Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v Community Financial Services Association of America, the court will review a decision of the fifth circuit court of appeals, America’s most conservative circuit court, undercutting the consumer-watchdog agency established in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08. The fifth circuit ruled that the CFPB has an unconstitutional funding structure. Article I, section 9 of the constitution mandates that “[n]o money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law”. Since the CFPB has a permanent funding stream allocated annually not by Congress but by the Federal Reserve, the plaintiffs argue that its financing is illegitimate.
If the justices find that this arrangement violates the constitution, everything the agency has done over its 12 years—from cracking down on predatory lenders to breaking up fraudulent debt-collection schemes—could be deemed unlawful, too. The fallout from such a ruling would be “deeply destabilising”, the federal government warns. A friend-of-the-court brief from the housing finance industry predicts…
2023-09-28 09:10:08
Post from www.economist.com
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