Plaintiffs Comment on State National Bank v. Lew DC Circuit Court Opinion

Today, in a win for the American public, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals granted standing to challenge in court the constitutionality of provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit. Below is a statement by Sam Kazman, CEI general counsel, about the ruling in State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas et al. v. Lew et al.:

"The D.C. Circuit’s ruling today opens the door to a court test of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s constitutionality. Since Dodd-Frank’s enactment five years ago this month, the CFPB has inflicted damage on huge segments of our economy.  Its powers are so free-roaming that they are unprecedented in our history. The fact that our standing to challenge the CFPB has been upheld is great news for us, the plaintiffs, and even greater news for the American public."

Below is a statement by Jim Purcell, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the State National Bank of Big Spring, Texas, which is the lead plaintiff in the case:

“As a small community bank out in West Texas, we’ve always felt pretty vulnerable to the regulatory burdens imposed on us by Washington, D.C. In recent years, that threat was epitomized for us by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency which was alarmingly free of traditional checks and balances. We never quite understood why the Bureau objected to having its constitutionality tested in court. On behalf of the bank, its customers, and the American public, we’re extremely gratified that we’ll now have the chance to put this agency to that test.”

For background on the lawsuit, please visit cei.org/doddfrank.