Obama Judge: “NO” to Billions Saved!

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Activist Judge Intervenes to Save Warren’s Signature Agency

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, a longtime Obama appointee, issued a ruling Tuesday preventing Vought from cutting off funding to the CFPB, effectively keeping the agency alive despite its looming financial collapse.

The CFPB was created during the Obama administration at the urging of then–Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren. From the start, critics warned the agency would become an unaccountable enforcement arm targeting businesses rather than protecting consumers.

Those concerns have only intensified over time.

Vought recently determined that the CFPB was facing a serious funding problem. By law, the agency does not rely on congressional appropriations. Instead, it draws money directly from the Federal Reserve’s “combined earnings.”

Here’s the issue: the Federal Reserve has been operating at a loss since 2022, paying out more in interest to banks than it earns from its bond portfolio.

No earnings means no funding.

Simple math.

But Judge Jackson ruled that the statute doesn’t mean what it plainly says. She ordered Vought to continue requesting funds from the Fed anyway, even though the money does not exist.

In her ruling, Jackson accused Vought of having “manufactured” a funding crisis in order to shut down the agency.

That accusation raised eyebrows, especially given Vought’s long-standing transparency about his goals.

Judge Weaponizes Vought’s Transparency

Vought has never hidden his position on the CFPB.

In October, he openly told the Charlie Kirk Show that he intended to “close down the agency” within “the next two, three months.”

That wasn’t a slip. It was honesty.

President Trump campaigned on eliminating wasteful agencies, and voters overwhelmingly supported that message. Vought was appointed to carry it out.

Judge Jackson, however, cited that interview as evidence of wrongdoing. She opened her opinion by highlighting Vought’s “candid statement,” portraying it as proof of an improper motive.

In reality, it was proof of accountability.

Why the CFPB Has Always Been a Problem

The CFPB stands apart from nearly every other federal agency — and not in a good way.

It operates outside the normal appropriations process, shielding it from congressional control. Its director historically enjoyed protections from removal, limiting presidential authority.

The agency has wielded enormous power to impose fines, regulations, and enforcement actions against financial institutions — often without meaningful checks.

The CFPB claims it has “returned” $21 billion to consumers over 14 years. But that money didn’t come from thin air. It came from fines extracted from American businesses, many of them small lenders and financial firms.

That’s not consumer protection. That’s redistribution enforced by bureaucracy.

Courts, Unions, and the Deep State Push Back

Judge Jackson went even further, accusing the Trump administration of attempting to “eliminate an agency created by Congress with the stroke of pen.”

What she failed to acknowledge is that the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the CFPB’s original structure was unconstitutional because its director wielded unchecked power.

Trump corrected that defect during his first term. But the agency’s broader lack of oversight remains.

Vought’s reforms also uncovered troubling activity within the CFPB. The Department of Government Efficiency reportedly gained access to internal systems and found complaints involving Tesla’s financing arm and other Elon Musk–related companies sitting in CFPB databases.

That discovery raised serious questions about whether the agency was being used as a political weapon.

Predictably, the National Treasury Employees Union sued to block layoffs at the CFPB. Judge Jackson initially sided with the union, halting the reductions.

While an appeals court briefly overturned her ruling, the full D.C. Circuit — stacked with Obama and Biden appointees — stepped in to rehear the case.

Now, 22 Democrat attorneys general have filed their own lawsuit, led by New York’s Letitia James — a familiar adversary of President Trump.

A Broader Battle Over Who Governs

Vought shut down most CFPB operations in February, paused enforcement actions, closed the agency’s Washington headquarters, and suspended new regulations.

The CFPB was projected to run out of money by early January 2026.

Judge Jackson’s ruling gives it a lifeline.

This fight is about more than one agency. It’s about whether unelected judges can override the will of voters and preserve a permanent bureaucracy no matter who wins elections.

Obama-era judges are still shaping national policy years after he left office.

And they’re not done yet.