Rocket Mortgage – the country’s largest mortgage lender – is putting its foot down and pushing back on efforts by overzealous federal bureaucrats who are trying to rewrite housing laws with a clickbait lawsuit.

In what is shaping up to be a landmark case, Rocket has sued the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, arguing that the agency’s recent enforcement actions against mortgage lenders contradict federal regulations around appraiser independence. The company is also seeking to dismiss discrimination claims against Rocket by the Justice Department.

All Rocket is asking from the court is clarity on contradictory regulations that have left the mortgage lender sandwiched between either complying with federal law or doing what the DOJ demands of it.

In July, HUD accused Rocket and an independent appraisal company of discriminating against a black homeowner in Colorado who was seeking refinancing from Rocket. In October, the DOJ followed with their own lawsuit.

Rocket’s contention is that they should not have been included as a defendant in the lawsuit because federal law bars mortgage lenders from influencing appraisers, a post-2008 regulation meant to eliminate conflicts of interest in the housing industry. The appraiser was not employed by Rocket. By law, Rocket has to contract with third-party appraisal management companies in order to find independent appraisers.

In other words, Rocket is now being held accountable for alleged discrimination by an independent appraiser who they had no legal authority over.

In fact, HUD’s enforcement action is aimed just at the independent appraiser and not at Rocket Mortgage. Rocket President Bill Emerson said on CNBC that HUD took a look at Rocket’s involvement and concluded that the team did nothing wrong.

The DOJ ignored those facts. And notably, Rocket was the only company named in the headline of the DOJ press release announcing its lawsuit, making clear the government’s intent: to generate headlines with a baseless lawsuit.

“If there is discrimination there, I want the client to get justice, but that justice should come at the right place – from the appraiser, not the lender, who has absolutely no ability to affect the outcome here,” Emerson said on CNBC. “We want to help every client we can possibly help, but what we don’t want is to be the poster child that the DOJ uses to garner headlines, which is exactly what they did in this particular case, because we did everything we could do.”

To Emerson’s point, Rocket even gave the homeowner the opportunity to submit more information that would have allowed Rocket to order a correction of the appraisal, but the homeowner declined to do so.

The government can’t have it both ways. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, regulators instituted a firewall between mortgage lenders and appraisers to protect consumers. Now, bureaucrats are trying to erode those protections to fit a politically charged narrative. All this does is expand the government’s reach and put aspiring homeowners at a further disadvantage.

HUD knows that Rocket isn’t at fault for this appraisal discrimination, proving government inconsistency. If the government is going to come after Rocket Mortgage for independent appraisers’ actions, then the federal requirements for lenders are not properly understood. Rocket is asking HUD to affirm that the actions of the appraiser are entirely independent from that of Rocket as the lender.

Keeping lenders and appraisers independent is in the best interest of all homeowners. Dragging Rocket into this lawsuit puts that at jeopardy.