Supreme Court upholds CFPB funding mechanism, rejecting conservative challenge

The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a broad challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reversing a lower-court ruling that would have undermined the watchdog agency Congress created 12 years ago in the wake of the financial crisis.

The CFPB ruling is the first of a series of decisions the justices will issue this term on the power and reach of federal agencies, long a target of conservatives and some corporate interests. In a 7-2 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court said the CFPB’s funding mechanism is constitutional. The agency is funded through profits of the Federal Reserve, not an annual appropriation by Congress.