Judge says she’s leaning toward temporarily saving the CFPB

A federal judge seems likely to temporarily block the Trump administration from dismantling a major consumer protection agency, fearing a delay could leave nothing for the court to save.

DC District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson sat through what she called an “illuminating two days ’ of witness testimony on the future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau .

The testimony came from a top agency executive and two additional CFPB employees representing opposing viewpoints.

The CFPB has a backlog of over 16,000 consumer complaints and other work that will take months to get done.

The agency's Consumer Response chief testified that the chaos has already left that work getting done, and that work is still getting done.

Judge Jackson seemed deeply skeptical that Vought telling staff to “stand down from performing any work task” didn’t mean stopping all work.

At least 75 complaints, he said, could be devastatingly high stakes — they came from people facing imminent foreclosure, but after Vought ’s directive, they “had not been touched.” A temporary injunction may not restore the agency to where it was prior to DOGE ’s arrival. But until Jackson is able to rule on the case’s merits, she says, it could mean it’s able to “limp along.”.