Fhfa

Defendant-Appellant Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) is the regulator and conservator of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (the “Enterprises”). The Enterprises are government-sponsored entities that purchase and securitize residential mortgages. FHFA issued a “directive” preventing the Enterprises from buying mortgages on properties encumbered by liens made under so-called property-assessed clean energy (“PACE”) programs, which finance environmental improvements on residential properties — and in return take an interest in those properties senior to any mortgagees’ interest. Plaintiffs-Appellees, including the State of California and several of its counties, are stakeholders in PACE programs. Plaintiffs-Appellees contend that FHFA acted as a regulator, and not a conservator, when it directed the Enterprises to cease purchasing mortgages on PACE-encumbered properties. And in acting as a regulator, Plaintiffs-Appellees argued in the district court, FHFA would require more than a fíat to order the Enterprises to stop buying mortgages on PACE-encumbered properties: as a regulator, Plaintiffs-Ap-pellees contended, FHFA must issue a regulation to effectuate its order.

The…