Trump's move against consumer protection agency sets up constitutional fight with courts, Congress

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive actions aimed at reshaping the federal government to start his second term have sparked a wave of legal challenges in federal courts, where experts anticipate a fight over Trump’s use of his executive powers.

Such challenges dominated the dockets at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington this past week as advocacy groups and unions challenged a federal funding freeze, executive orders targeting transgender Americans, and attempts by billionaire Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency to access and shut down several federal agencies.

The National Treasury Employees Union brought the most recent challenge on Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, targeting the disclosure of sensitive information and efforts to defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Russell Vought, Trump’s recently confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, ordered the consumer protection bureau’s headquarters be closed on Monday.

In a Saturday post on X, formerly Twitter, Vought said he had notified the Federal Reserve that the agency would not take “its next draw of unappropriated funding,” which he said was not “reasonably necessary” to continue its function.

Vought’s post followed a Friday afternoon post by Musk, where he wrote, “CFPB RIP."

David Vladeck, professor at Georgetown and former director of the Financial Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in an interview with Courthouse News that the move would face legal and political blowback.

Vladeck said that while the federal judges hear arguments in either case, Congress would take issue with the move, including Republicans in the House and Senate, as the legislative branch is responsible for funding and overseeing federal agencies.

“What Trump and his friends are doing is based on what he calls the ‘unitary executive,’” Vladeck said, referring to an interpretation of presidential power as having the sole authority over the executive branch. “What Trump is trying to do is essentially to push aside Congress and take over not just the administration of the agencies but the life and death of agencies.”

The consumer protection agency is the latest to be targeted by Musk and his DOGE agents after the U.S. Agency for International Development was threatened with mass layoffs last week, which were temporarily halted by Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols on Friday.

Despite Nichols’ temporary restraining order requiring the reinstatement of all USAID employees on administrative leave and barring the placement of any additional employees on leave, unions representing the employees warned Monday that the administration had failed to comply fully.

The unions also pointed to recent developments, such as Trump’s Friday night Truth Social post saying to “CLOSE IT DOWN,” the physical removal of signage on the agency’s headquarters, the termination en masse of contracts and awards, and another bar on employees entering the headquarters Monday morning.

Monday’s notice, which also requested an immediate hearing to address the concerns, comes as Vice President JD Vance suggested over the weekend that the administration may defy certain court orders.

Vladeck said Monday that federal judges would resist such defiance and employ their power to enforce their orders. He added that while the courts are hesitant to “push around the executive,” if things continue to escalate, they could ultimately take such extreme measures as ordering appointees like Vought to jail to force his compliance.

“We are a country of laws, not just broad power,” Vladeck said. “I think the courts are starting to get upset at the refusal of this administration to obey the law, and that’s really the issue. Will Trump and Vance and the rest of these guys obey the law, and if not, the courts are going to have to come down on them.”

The consumer protection agency lawsuits follow a string of similar challenges last week after Musk and his DOGE agents gained access to sensitive systems at the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor. Unions representing federal employees, public and private sector employees, and retired Americans filed suit to block further access, which found mixed success.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Bill Clinton appointee, approved a consent order between the Treasury Department and the unions preventing anyone beyond two DOGE employees placed at the Treasury — Tom Krause and Marko Elez — from accessing the systems. Elez, 25, has since been fired from his position at DOGE after a series of racist tweets were uncovered.

In the Department of Labor case, U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, denied the unions’ request for a temporary injunction, finding they lacked standing to block the anticipated disclosure to DOGE agents.

Trump has tried to exert his authority over other independent agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Board and the Office of Special Counsel, by ordering the sudden termination of former NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox and special counsel head Hampton Dellinger, respectively.

Dellinger, the leader of the independent federal ethics agency, challenged his firing in Washington on Monday, arguing that the one-sentence termination email Friday night was unlawful and violated “nearly a century of precedent” regarding for-cause removal protection for the heads of independent agencies.

Wilcox filed a similar suit on Wednesday.

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