FILE PHOTO: Supporters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rally after Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Russell Vought told all of the agency's staff to stay away from the office and do no work, outside the CFPB in Washington, U.S., February 10, 2025. REUTERS/Craig Hudson/File Photo
President Donald Trump's effort to dismantle the federal government was dealt another blow in federal court on Friday afternoon, with a Washington, D.C. judge blocking his effort to dissolve the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Acting Director Russ Vought ordered a halt to all CFPB activities, including supervision, investigations, enforcement, rulemaking, and stakeholder activities. The administration then instructed about 1,700 employees to stay home, with plans to lay off most of its workforce. Probationary employees were already terminated.
The National Treasury Employees Union sued the Trump administration to keep the agency funded and operational, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from deleting data, terminating employees, or reducing funding.
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On Friday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a 112-page order granting a preliminary injunction keeping the agency intact as the lawsuit progresses, saying "the Court can and must act."
Legal expert Adam Klasfeld wrote on X that the order bars data destruction for the agency and reinstated probationary workers. It also blocked firings, except for cause, and reopened in-person or virtual offices.
"The Court’s oversight is the only thing holding the defendants back," CBS News reporter Seth MacFarlane wrote on X on Friday afternoon.
"The Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion," she wrote in a 112-page ruling.