2 Bosses Show Up to Lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau<br />Carl W. Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who studies federal judicial selection,<br />said Judge Kelly’s tenure in Washington has probably left him familiar with “interbranch disputes.”<br />“On the president’s side,” Mr. Tobias said, “you can say<br />that the Vacancies Reform Act should govern.” Ms. English’s camp, on the other hand, could argue that the thrust of Dodd-Frank was to create “a lot of insulation” for the agency to be truly politically independent, he said.<br />“We’re aware that a lawsuit has been filed,” said Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, “but we’re also aware<br />that the law is extremely clear and that Director Mulvaney is the acting director here.”<br />She said the legality of his appointment was confirmed by the White House counsel’s office, the Justice Department<br />and the agency’s own general counsel, who was appointed by Mr. Cordray.<br />The judge also said that neither set of attorneys had addressed whether Mr. Mulvaney, who is<br />also the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, “can wear two hats.”<br />Yet the judge remarked that he was essentially being asked by Deepak Gupta, Ms.<br />English’s lawyer, to overrule the president’s power to appoint a new director.<br />Quyen Truong, a former assistant director and deputy general counsel at the bureau, predicted a likely protracted legal battle,<br />even if Judge Kelly ultimately denied Ms. English’s request to at least temporarily keep Mr. Mulvaney from running the agency.
