A federal judge in Texas decided that the lawsuit challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s credit card late fee belongs in Washington, D.C.
“This case does not belong in the Northern District of Texas and certainly not in the Fort Worth Division,” U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, of the Northern District of Texas, ruled in the lawsuit filed by the American Bankers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups. He added, “Venue is not a continental breakfast; you cannot pick and choose on a plaintiffs’ whim where and how a lawsuit is filed.”
The groups had asked for an injunction blocking implementation of the rule, which will limit most credit card late fees to $8. When Pittman did not issue an injunction, the groups filed a request with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals requesting an emergency order blocking the rule.
Notably, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is the same court that has found the CFPB’s funding mechanism unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, the CFPB had filed a request to transfer the case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where the majority of the plaintiffs and their attorneys work.
“A review of the record shows there are ten attorneys spanning five different firms or organizations representing the various Parties in this case,” Pittman wrote, in his decision.” Of the ten, eight list their offices in the District of Columbia.”
“Notably, Plaintiffs do not identify any substantial or practical issues with this case being held in Washington D.C,” he continued.
Critics have accused the ABA and the Chamber of filing the lawsuit in a state where judges are more conservative than they are in other areas of the country.
Indeed, another federal judge in the Northern District of Texas on Friday blocked the implementation of federal anti-redlining rules. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk blocked implementation of the revised Community Reinvestment Act rules that had been issued by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. He said the rules went further than the law allows.
Meanwhile, several House Republicans, led by Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee’s Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee, have filed H.J. Res 122, which would block implementation of the credit card late fee rule.
The resolution was filed under the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to nullify agency rules. The resolution has virtually no chance of succeeding; even if the House and Senate were to approve the resolution, President Biden can be expected to veto it. Biden has lumped credit card late fees into the category of “junk fees” that his administration wants to eliminate.
