A lawsuit in North Dakota federal district court could provide an early test of the reach of a federal appeals court decision that confronted what the judges called the "massive, unchecked power" of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

In June, the CFPB sued payment processor Intercept Corp., alleging the company and two of its executives allowed clients to make unauthorized and illegal withdrawals from consumers' accounts. The CFPB's complaint in U.S. District Court for North Dakota alleged Intercept ignored red flags—such as warnings from banks and complaints from consumers—and "knew or consciously avoided knowing that many of the transactions initiated by those companies were fraudulent or illegal."

Lawyers for Intercept seized on a Washington federal appeals court ruling last week that struck down as unconstitutional the structure of the CFPB. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that too much power was vested in the CFPB's director, Richard Cordray, whom Judge Brett Kavanaugh described as "the single most powerful official in the entire U.S. government, other than the president."