PHH Corporation v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Financial Fairness and Administrative Anxiety

8 Pages Posted: 9 Feb 2021

See all articles by Shayak Sarkar

Shayak Sarkar

University of California, Davis - School of Law

Josh Rosenthal

National Immigration Law Center

Date Written: May 4, 2018

Abstract

In PHH Corporation v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the D.C. Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s “novel” structure over vociferous dissent. Yet the divisive constitutional and statutory challenges to the Bureau mirror those levied against its predecessor and partner agency, the Federal Trade Commission, beginning nearly a century ago. The anxiety produced by consumer protection’s infringement on freedom of contract is not “novel.” In this Essay, we explain how the trans-substantive constitutional and administrative law principles at play in PHH should not distract from the substantive debates about consumer protection underlying the controversy. In short, PHH should be recognized as much as a referendum on “Consumer Financial Protection” as it is on the “Bureau.”

Keywords: consumer finance, PHH v. CFPB, unitary executive, removal powers, CFPB, FTC

Suggested Citation

Sarkar, Shayak and Rosenthal, Josh, PHH Corporation v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Financial Fairness and Administrative Anxiety (May 4, 2018). 165 University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online 265 (2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3753279

Shayak Sarkar (Contact Author)

University of California, Davis - School of Law ( email )

Martin Luther King, Jr. Hall
Davis, CA CA 95616-5201
United States

Josh Rosenthal

National Immigration Law Center ( email )

3435 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 2850
Los Angeles, CA 90010
United States

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