Not content to wait for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on whether it thinks the leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is constitutional, a payday lender has filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a hearing, while also asking whether companies that have been the subject of enforcement actions by the CFPB are entitled to have those actions dismissed.
A copy of the petition in the case of All American Check Cashing, Inc. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can be accessed by clicking here.
All American Check Cashing was sued by the CFPB back in 2016 for allegedly engaging in abusive, deceptive, and unfair conduct. The lender has been fighting the lawsuit ever since, and is currently awaiting a ruling from the Fifth Circuit on its argument that the leadership structure of the CFPB is unconstitutional.
All American Check Cashing is likely to have an unexpected ally in its argument — the CFPB itself. The CFPB recently submitted a brief in another Supreme Court Case — Seila Law v. CFPB — in which it all but admitted its leadership structure is unconstitutional. Seila Law is fighting against having to comply with a Civil Investigative Demand letter it received from the CFPB. Arguments on that case will be heard during the next Supreme Court session, which begins this month.
Not content to just force the CFPB to alter its leadership structure, All American Check Cashing is also raising questions about what should happen to companies that have been subject to enforcement actions of an unconstitutionally structured agency of the federal government.
“Here, if All American is correct that the CFPB is unconstitutionally struc- tured, that means that this enforcement action is void and All American’s motion for judgment on the pleadings must be granted,” it argued in its petition.
