Ninth Circuit Sides with CFPB in Ratification Fight

As 2020 drew to a close, the Ninth Circuit gave the CFPB a victory in Consumer Fin. Prot. Bureau v. Seila Law LLC, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40572 (9th Cir. Dec. 29, 2020), upholding the CFPB’s civil investigative demand (CID) to Seila Law. The case was on remand from the United States Supreme Court, which held that the statute establishing the CFPB violated the Constitution by placing leadership of the agency in the hands of a single Director who could only be removed for cause. Seila Law LLC v. CFPB, 140 S. Ct. 2183 (2020). The Supreme Court, however, concluded that the for-cause provision of the statute could be severed and did not require the invalidation of the entire agency; it then remanded the case back to the Ninth Circuit to determine whether the CFPB’s ratification of its earlier decision to issue the CID to Seila Law was valid. Just over a month after hearing oral argument on the ratification question, a unanimous panel of the...