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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the structure of the Consumer Financial protection Bureau, the watchdog agency set up by Congress after the 2008 financial crash to protect consumers from predatory and deceptive practices by financial institutions.

The vote was 7-to-2. Writing for the court majority, Justice Clarence Thomas focused on the text and history of the appropriations clause of the Constitution, all of which, he said, give Congress broad discretion and flexibility as to how it authorizes funds to be drawn from the Treasury. He noted that the very first Congress allowed several executive agencies to fund themselves from revenue they collected, much like the CFPB does today in getting a capped amount from fees collected by the Federal Reserve system.

Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. They said that the court had turned the appropriations clause of the constitution into a "minor vestige," allowing the CFPB to "bankroll its own agenda without any congressional oversight."

Congress created the CFPB after the 2008 financial crash to protect consumers from what were seen as predatory and deceptive practices by financial institutions. Since then, the bureau has established consumer protections for transactions ranging from mortgages to credit cards. But payday lenders have, for years, fought regulations that would limit excessive fees charged on small loans of just a few hundred dollars fees that often end up costing people thousands of dollars.

Then, last year, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the CFPB's structure is unconstitutional because, instead of an annual congressional appropriation, Congress set the agency's funding at a capped amount that comes from banking fees paid to the Federal Reserve System.

The government appealed to the Supreme Court because many other agencies are similarly funded, including the Federal Reserve itself; the FDIC, which insures bank deposits; the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which charters and regulates all national banks; and potentially even Social Security and Medicare, which are funded by a specific tax.