Judge orders CFPB to reinstate fired employees, preserve records and get back to work

A federal judge on Friday ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's leadership, appointed by President Donald Trump, to halt its campaign to dismantle the agency.

In a filing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with the CFPB employee union that sued acting CFPB director Russell Vought last month to prevent him from laying off nearly all of the regulator's staff. Operatives from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency have also been involved in efforts to fire employees.

"Defendants shall not terminate any CFPB employee, except for cause related to the individual employee's performance or conduct; and defendants shall not issue any notice of reduction-in-force to any CFPB employee," Berman said.

Berman ordered Vought to reinstate all probationary and term employees fired after Vought took over at the CFPB, said that he shouldn't "delete, destroy, remove, or impair agency data," and struck down Vought's February stop-work order.

"To ensure that employees can perform their statutorily mandated functions, the defendants must provide them with either fully-equipped office space, or permission to work remotely" Berman wrote.

In the sweeping document, Berman also said that the CFPB needed to ensure its consumer complaint portal worked and that the agency responded to those complaints; told the CFPB to reverse the contract terminations to vendors hired by the bureau, and ordered Vought to file a report by April 4 confirming compliance with the edicts.

"This order shall bind the defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and any other persons who are in active concert or participation with them, such as personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency," Berman wrote.

Spokeswomen for Vought didn't immediately return an email seeking comment.