9th Circuit upholds injunction against cash transaction reporting order
In March 2025 we reported on an order from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the US Department of the Treasury commanding all money transfer agencies and currency exchanges in seven counties in California and Texas along the US-Mexico border to file reports with FinCEN including the identities of all customers engaging in all cash transactions over $200.
Separate lawsuits challenging this order were brought by the Institute for Justice on behalf of storefront financial services business in California and Texas.
FinCen revised and reissued the order several times, raising the reporting threshold from $200 to $1000 and changing the areas to which the order applied. But despite these moves by FinCEN, US District Courts in both California and Texas issued preliminary injunctions against enforcement of the order.
A year later, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the injunction in the California case by a 2-1 vote.