Conservative legal group targets CFPB rule mandating race, sex data in home loans

FIRST ON FOX: A Trump-aligned legal group is urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to scrap its demographic reporting mandate, arguing that the rule allows lenders to consider the race and sex of mortgage applicants as part of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

America First Legal said in a petition, first reviewed by Fox News Digital, that the CFPB should encourage mortgage lenders to focus strictly on the creditworthiness of homebuyers. The CFPB’s Regulation C, which requires the lenders to track and report race and sex, is unconstitutional, the group argued.

“The disclosure of this information leaves applicants vulnerable to race- and sex-based discrimination by government and private actors in violation of federal civil rights law and the Constitution,” an America First Legal representative wrote.

The petition comes as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to quash diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI, in the public and private sectors. The petition aligns with an executive order Trump signed in April urging a “meritocracy and colorblind society.” The order was aimed at agencies responsible for evaluating people’s credit.

DEI is a framework that companies, schools, government agencies and other entities have adopted to promote equal treatment for minorities, but conservatives have long argued its practices can be discriminatory by improperly extending preferential treatment to them.

America First Legal said Regulation C flies in the face of the administration’s sweeping efforts to root out DEI across industries. The group’s petition functions as a request to the CFPB to formally begin the process of eliminating the regulation.

“The federal government has no business forcing Americans to disclose their race or sex as a condition of applying for a mortgage,” America First Legal President Gene Hamilton said in a statement. “Regulation C pressures lenders to sort borrowers by immutable characteristics and invites discrimination under the guise of ‘equity.’”

The CFPB was created by Congress in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to investigate complaints about mortgages, various other loans and other banking activity that involves consumers.

But since its inception, Republicans have targeted the agency as a rogue entity that imposes unnecessary and burdensome regulations on financial institutions.

The acting director of the agency, Russell Vought, has sought to shutter the CFPB entirely, but those efforts have thus far been stalled by the courts, which have found that only Congress can get rid of it. The CFPB has remained somewhat operational, as it has been filing reports through late last year, and Vought recently requested an additional $145 million to fund it to remain compliant with a recent court order.