By Ori Lev and James Williams, Mayer Brown LLP (April 28, 2017, 10:50 AM EDT) -- Dealing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau another setback, on April 21, 2017, the D.C. Circuit refused to enforce a civil investigative demand (CID) issued by the CFPB to an accrediting agency for for-profit schools.[1] Although the court cast its decision as based on a "narrower basis" than the district court's holding that the CFPB lacked the authority to investigate the process for accrediting for-profit schools,[2] the court of appeals' decision is likely to have broad implications for how the CFPB identifies the nature and scope of its investigations in its CIDs, which to date have provided investigation subjects with little information about the nature of the CFPB's concerns. This, in turn, could provide significant benefits to CID recipients, as well as establish a basis to challenge the requests set forth in CIDs....