The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has formally asked the full Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to lift the injunction that is currently preventing it from laying off most of its workforce, arguing that the court order represents a “sweeping intrusion” into the agency’s internal management and operational authority.
In its en banc reply brief, filed ahead of oral arguments scheduled for next week, the CFPB urged the full court to vacate the preliminary injunction entered by a federal district court, which has blocked the Bureau from moving forward with a large-scale reduction in force. The agency’s leadership has argued that the injunction prevents it from using lawful tools to manage staffing, contracts, and operations in line with the administration’s policy priorities.
The Bureau framed the injunction as an unprecedented level of judicial involvement in executive branch personnel decisions, contending that courts traditionally grant the government broad latitude in managing its internal affairs. According to the brief, the order does not merely pause specific employment actions, but instead constrains how CFPB leadership can manage the agency as a whole, including staffing levels and operational restructuring.
The filing is part of the ongoing legal fight over the Trump administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the CFPB’s workforce. Earlier this year, a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit had cleared the way for mass layoffs, but that ruling was later vacated when the full court agreed to rehear the case en banc. As a result, the injunction blocking the layoffs remains in place while the court reconsiders the legality of the administration’s actions.
In its brief, the CFPB also challenged the legal basis for the injunction itself, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to establish proper jurisdiction and that courts should not be policing the agency’s internal management decisions absent clear statutory violations. The Bureau maintained that disputes over employment actions should proceed through existing civil service processes rather than broad court orders restricting agency operations.
