A federal judge hinders the demolition of the consumer financial protection bureau, finding Trump’s government acting “fully violating the law” when trying to quickly close the organization.
Judge Amy Mantan Jackson issued a preliminary order on Friday afternoon which requires Trump administration to return the CFPB employee who is stopped, cancel the cancellation of any contract, allowing the workforce to access their computers and return to the office, continue the work needed legally and maintain any records held by the organization.
“If the defendants were not ordered, they would eliminate the agency before the court had the opportunity to decide whether the law allowed them to do it, and when the defendant’s own witness warned, the damage could not be repaired,” Jackson Jackon wrote.
Activists participated in general meetings outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), March 24, 2025, in Washington, DC
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The consumer financial protection agency, created by the congress to protect Americans against unfair business practices after the 2008 financial crisis, has been targeted to be eliminated by President Donald Trump as part of his efforts to cut the federal government.
Trump said CFPB “is very important to be removed” and that the organization was “established to destroy some very good people.”
In his decision, Judge Jackson said Trump’s government acted “ignored” for the congress when they tried to unilaterally dismantle the agency.
Their efforts to dismantle the organization continued even after Judge Jackson in February ordered Trump’s administration not to fire the majority of agency employees, he wrote.
“There is no order to freeze the status quo – preserving the agency data, operational capacity, and labor – there is a substantial risk that the defendants will complete the destruction of the agency that violates the law long before the court can decide on the service, and it is not possible to be rebuilt,” he wrote.
Jackson judge also criticized Trump’s administration for scrambling to change the direction after he began examining efforts to end the operation.
Judge Amy Merman Jackson was present at a award breakfast for Pro Bono advisors at the E. Barrett Prettyman Court Building in Washington, DC, April 21, 2016.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
According to Jackson, the government’s claim that CFPB is still carrying out the tasks needed legally is “no more than window clothes” to hide what happens to close the organization.
“The defendants are still involved in an effort to implement the president’s plan to close the agency and do it quickly,” jackson judge.
In the court process, Trump administrative officials claimed the stop-work orders that sent most of the employees to home were “general practices at the beginning of the new government” and the lawyer of the Department of Justice insisted that Trump’s administration tried to increase CFPB, not destroy it.
Jackson judge specifically summoned damage that could not be repaired made to one of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit, Father Eva Steege, who sought assistance from CFPB to forgive his public service loans before he died. With Trump’s government dismantling CFPB when he asked for help, Steege never got an appointment with CFPB, according to his lawyer.
“If I do not accept the amnestration of public service loans and large refunds that I debt before my death, my family can be forced to pursue the dismissal of death that will not give them a refund they rely so that they can use money for basic needs after I passed,” Steege said in the declaration to swear.
He died on March 15, and his loan never runs out.
“The uncovered damage that has occurred for Father Eva Steege is enough to provide preliminary assistance,” Jackson Jackon wrote.