WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today filed a second friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the District and 17 other states in a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s decision to appoint Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The brief, in Lower East Side People’s Federal Credit Union v. Trump, argues that maintaining CFPB’s independence is crucial to protecting consumers, and that Congress ensured this independence by creating a specific plan for succession.

Richard Cordray was the first director of the agency, which is designed to serve as an independent consumer advocate and check on the power of large financial-services businesses. He stepped down last month and, under the act that created the CFPB, his deputy director, Leandra English, became the acting director. Trump, citing an earlier federal law, claimed he had authority to appoint an acting director and selected Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Mulvaney has been an outspoken critic of the CFPB and, while he served in Congress, voted to weaken the agency’s authority and questioned its existence. While there is a similar amicus brief from the District and states in the separate English v. Mulvaney case, in this case a credit union in New York City sued Trump, charging that his handling of the CFPB appointment had thrown the industry into a state of regulatory chaos.

“The CFPB’s independence is crucial to continuing its excellent work in protecting consumers in the District and across the country,” Attorney General Racine said. “Congress created clear rules for maintaining that independence, and we believe President Trump has violated those rules.”

Since the CFPB began operations in 2011, the agency has handled more than a million consumer complaints and returned nearly $12 billion to the pockets of more than 29 million consumers wronged by financial institutions – five times more than the agency itself costs taxpayers to fund. Among other efforts to help consumers, the CFPB has reached multiple settlements with banks, debt collectors, and other predatory lenders. Recently, partnering with several state attorneys general, the CFPB took action against several predatory for-profit colleges, forcing them to pay restitution to consumers the schools lured in with unrealistic promises of a degree and gainful employment.

The amicus brief, available here, argues that allowing President Trump to circumvent the law regarding who serves as acting director seriously compromises the agency’s independence. “The defendants’ approach demolishes a critical part of Congress’ carefully constructed statutory scheme for the CFPB’s independence. The independence of an agency means little without independent leadership,” the brief says.

In addition to Attorney General Racine, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington state joined the brief.