US court pauses union lawsuit against Trump consumer watchdog

In light of a revised mass layoff plan unveiled in April, a federal appeals court last month agreed to allow Berman Jackson to consider lifting the preliminary injunction she imposed last year requiring the administration not to fire CFPB workers en masse while the courts decide if this is legal. The order issued Friday pauses that process.

Under the April plan, the CFPB workforce would fall to 556 workers, less than a third of the agency's size when Trump took office, with 80% and 85% of positions eliminated in the divisions of enforcement and supervision respectively.

Both sides now agree that if confirmed Johnson should be able to review the new layoff plan and "decide whether he would like to pursue it," according to a joint motion that prompted Jackson's Friday order.

Congress created the CFPB following the 2008 financial crisis to prevent predatory lending and police consumer financial industries that generated many of the toxic products underpinning the crisis.

Trump and other top officials have called for the CFPB's outright elimination, accusing it of politicized enforcement and unduly burdening companies, something consumer advocates have rejected as an illegal giveaway to politically connected corporate actors that jeopardizes public welfare.