Three days ago in a split 72 decision the US Supreme Court delivered a victory for the

administrative state. Specifically this Supreme Court ruling allows for a certain

government agency to continue getting its funding not from the

U.S. Treasury, but instead directly from the Federal Reserve Bank.

Or in other words, it allows the government to use the Federal Reserve, which is a quasi-private bank, to fund its pet projects.

And the implications this has in terms of a government that is not accountable to the people

is rather far-reaching.

And so let's go through the details of this particular case together.

To start with, shortly after the financial crisis of 2008, Congress passed a bill, you can see it up on your screen, called the

Not Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

And after passing both the House and the Senate, it was subsequently signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Now included in this massive 848-page law was the creation of a new federal agency.

It's called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

otherwise known as the CFPB.

This new agency, it was the brainchild

of Senator Elizabeth Warren,

and its stated purpose was to regulate

consumer financial products, things like credit cards, mortgages, as well as

car loans. Proponents of this new agency, they said that it essentially served as a check on

corporate power. However, this agency came with a bit of a unique twist because unlike every other

agency within the purview of the federal government the Consumer Financial

Protection Bureau got its funding not from the US Treasury but rather they were

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