Amicus Brief

TRENTON – New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin today co-led a coalition of 23 Attorneys General in filing an amicus brief standing with consumers and seeking to stop the Trump Administration’s unlawful dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has successfully prevented corporations from taking advantage of our residents and has returned billions of dollars into the pockets of Americans.  President Trump’s attempts to gut this critical watchdog agency are as reckless as they are illegal,” said Attorney General Platkin. “Instead of protecting Americans from predatory business practices, the Trump Administration is once again prioritizing the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. We will fight back against this transparent attempt to gut consumer protections and enable unscrupulous business practices at the expense of hard-working Americans.”

The coalition today filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of the plaintiffs in National Treasury Employees Union v. Vought. The plaintiffs in that case sued to stop the dismantling of the CFPB. On March 28, 2025, the district court issued a preliminary injunction preventing Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought from dismantling the CFPB. The court’s preliminary injunction prohibited mass layoffs, required the reinstatement of employees laid off since the beginning of the dismantling efforts, and prevented the CFPB from proceeding with Acting Director Vought’s directive to stop the CFPB’s work.

The Trump Administration has appealed the preliminary injunction, and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will soon rule on the injunction. If the injunction does not remain in place, consumers in New Jersey and across the country will be harmed as the CPFB proceeds to be dismantled.

The amicus brief filed today argues that the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the CFPB will inflict short- and long-term harm on states and their residents. As the brief explains, dismantling the CFPB could prevent consumers from reporting issues of fraud or deception. The CFPB’s abdication of its role in supervising large national banks will also harm consumers by increasing the risk that financial institutions skirt their regulatory obligations, as was true in the lead-up to the financial crisis.

Joining Attorney General Platkin on the brief are the attorneys general of New York, the District of Columbia, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.

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