By Laurence Platt (June 12, 2018, 2:14 PM EDT) -- It has been over 35 years since I took Administrative Law in law school, but I remember well the basic legal maxim that an executive agency, independent or otherwise, derives its power and authority to regulate from the U.S. Congress. The threshold question for any agency's regulatory initiative is whether Congress delegated specific or general authority to that agency to regulate in the contemplated manner. The swarm of recent requests for information issued by the "new" Consumer Financial Protection Bureau triggered this memory when I read the CFPB's request for views on the manner in which the CFPB previously had exercised this rulemaking authority. I want to highlight one area where I think the CFPB went too far — namely, its extensive default servicing regulations under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA, which became final on Jan. 1, 2014, with subsequent revisions and as to which RESPA provides a private right of action for violations. However well-motivated in light of the concern over foreclosures, these regulations are a classic example, I believe, of regulatory overreach....