The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s director can be fired by the president only for cause, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday, restoring security to a job that has become a political lightning rod.
When Congress created the bureau seven years ago, it specified that the director — after being nominated to a five-year term by the president and confirmed by the Senate — could be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance.” That standard differs from those in effect at most other federal agencies, whose leaders can typically be removed at will by a president.
