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yesterday

Supreme Court Allows Trump to Remove Consumer Product Safety Commissioners Pending Litigation

Lower courts resume merits proceedings on removal protections with the commission lacking a quorum.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Rockville, Maryland, on Aug. 31, 2020.
A view of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S. June 29, 2024. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr as he arrives to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Overview

  • The unsigned Supreme Court order authorizes President Trump to fire CPSC commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. while their appeal plays out.
  • The removal leaves the five-member commission without the quorum needed to approve safety recalls and enforcement actions.
  • The majority pointed to its May emergency rulings on NLRB and MSPB members, applying the same equitable discretion to side with the executive’s removal power.
  • Justices Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson dissented, warning the decision undermines for-cause removal safeguards rooted in Humphrey’s Executor (1935).
  • With the commission inquorate, district courts will now tackle the merits of the case and the Supreme Court could later decide whether to uphold or overturn the nine-decade-old precedent on presidential firing authority.