Judge temporarily halts mass firings at CFPB, preserves agency data

Source: Politico

02/14/2025 05:52 PM EST


A federal judge Friday temporarily stopped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from continuing mass firings of employees, throwing up an initial roadblock to President Donald Trump’s fast-moving efforts to dismantle the agency. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson blocked the CFPB from terminating additional employees after the Trump administration this week fired dozens of agency workers, including an entire team of people scrutinizing Big Tech companies’ financial products.

The order blocks the CFPB from terminating any employee, other than for performance-related reasons or misconduct, or starting the process to lay off career agency employees. In addition, Berman, an appointee of President Barack Obama, prohibited the Trump administration from destroying or removing any of the CFPB’s vast troves of data, which includes consumer complaints and sensitive information collected about how banks and other financial firms are complying with federal laws.

The order also blocks acting CFPB Director Russ Vought from taking steps to defund the agency, echoing a separate ruling by a federal judge in Baltimore on Thursday evening. The Trump administration agreed to the temporary restrictions while the judge more fully considers a lawsuit brought by a CFPB employee union in the coming weeks. The judge set another hearing for March 3.

The National Treasury Employees Union, along with the NAACP and several consumer groups, had asked for the emergency order because it said it believed that Vought was planning to begin mass firings as soon as Friday that would encompass nearly the agency’s entire workforce.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/14/judge-halts-cfpb-firings-00204464