Fannie Mae-No Politics (FNMA)

[familymang]

The GOP AMICI CURIAE BRIEF wants SCOTUS to affirm the 5th circuit ruling in full, which if SCOTUS agrees with would be positive for us.

The only remaining question would then be the remedy. The Fifth Circuit was right to vacate a rule enacted without constitutional funding. “An agency’s funding is the very lifeblood that empowers it to act.” CFPB v. All Am. Check Cashing, Inc., 33 F.4th 218, 241 (5th Cir. 2022) (Jones, J., concurring). And the Bureau does not convincingly explain how severing some provision of Section 5497 could provide it with the “proper appropriation” that is “a precondition to every exercise of executive authority by an administrative agency.” Id. at 242. So the court appropriately vacated the rule before it. No money, no power.

The Fifth Circuit was right in every regard. The Court should grant the Petition and confirm the Fifth Circuit’s reasoning. Otherwise, uncertainty will lurk in the financial markets—and States could well be left standing on the sidelines with little power to do anything but watch the chaos unfold.

It would mean that every challenged action while an agency violated the appropriations clause would be vacated. In the Collins FHFA case, this would be the NWS. Also in both the Collins en banc and SCOTUS rulings, the majority had an extremely difficult time trying to distinguish FHFA from CFPB, SCOTUS even cited that both don't receive funding from the normal appropriations procedure. So as long as SCOTUS affirms the 5th circuits CFPB ruling + remedy, and 5th circuit finds no reason to distinguish FHFA from CFPB in re: approprations, this has the potential to be a huge win for shareholders.

SCOTUS may "inadvertently" grant us a win by affirming the 5th circuit ruling.