In split decision, court clears Trump to restart CFPB mass firings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A divided federal appeals court on Friday found that U.S. President Donald Trump should be able to resume mass firings at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ruling that a lower court had lacked jurisdiction in temporarily blocking this, court records showed.

However, the court said its decision would not take immediate effect, allowing lawyers representing CFPB workers and pro-consumer organizations to seek reconsideration by the full Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

"We hold that the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider the claims predicated on loss of employment, which must proceed through the specialized-review scheme" under laws governing the civil service, the majority wrote.

Other objections raised by the plaintiffs did not concern final decisions made by the agency and so could not be reviewed in court, wrote U.S. Circuit Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both Trump appointees.

In a dissent, Circuit Judge Cornelia Pillard said the lower court had acted properly in blocking the Trump administration from eradicating the CFPB entirely as the lawsuit played out, writing that "it is emphatically not within the discretion of the President or his appointees to decide that the country would benefit most if there were no Bureau at all."

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington;Editing by Marguerita Choy)