US Supreme Court upholds consumer finance watchdog agency's funding mechanism

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding mechanism in a challenge brought by the payday loan industry, handing a victory to President Joe Biden's administration and a setback to the agency's conservative critics.

The 7-2 decision, authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, reversed a lower court's ruling that the CFPB's funding design violated a provision of the U.S. Constitution called the "appropriations clause" giving Congress the power of the purse. The agency draws money annually from the Federal Reserve instead of from budgets passed...