The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claims to be enforcing a law that prohibits “false or misleading representations.”
by Jacob Sullum
Reason.com
A federal rule that took effect yesterday requires that anyone attempting to collect unpaid rent tell tenants they may be protected by the residential eviction moratorium that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) imposed in September. Yet federal courts have repeatedly held that the moratorium, which the CDC recently extended through June 30, is invalid because it exceeds the agency’s legal authority.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which yesterday sued the CFPB on behalf of residential property managers and Louisiana real estate attorney Gordon Schoeffler, argues that the rule, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued under a statute that forbids “false or misleading representations,” requires debt collectors to lie. The NCLA’s complaint, which it filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, says the CFPB’s rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is not authorized by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.