The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered another victory to President Donald Trump, allowing his administration to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), marking Trump's 16th consecutive win before the High Court.
Why It Matters
The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has granted a slew of Trump's requests filed through the emergency docket since the president took office in January.
Among other things, the court has handed the administration wins on its efforts to shrink the size of the federal government, immigration enforcement, deportations, scaling back legal protections for transgender people, removing independent government watchdogs and more.
What To Know
On Wednesday, the court granted an emergency request from the Department of Justice to overturn a lower-court ruling reinstating the three Democratic members of the CPSC. The DOJ argued in its request that as the head of the executive branch, the president has the authority to remove agency commissioners without cause.
The three liberal justices dissented, echoing concerns raised by U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, who had ruled in June that the dismissals were unlawful.
Maddox, who was appointed to the court by President Joe Biden, emphasized the CPSC's role as a semi-independent body tasked with protecting consumers through recalls, litigation and safety regulations. He had sought to distinguish the commission's duties from those of other federal agencies where the Court has upheld similar firings.
Justice Elena Kagan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, was particularly sharp in her dissent Wednesday, saying that the High Court's ruling nearly overturned the precedent set by the 1935 case Humphrey's Executor v. United States. The court ruled in that case that the Constitution allows Congress to make laws limiting the president's power to fire some executive branch officials who are part of an independent agency.
Kagan was joined in her dissent by the court's other two liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor.
The Supreme Court has not formally overturned the 90-year-old precedent, but Kagan wrote: "On the Court's emergency docket—which means 'on a short fuse without benefit of full briefing and oral argument'—the majority has effectively expunged Humphrey's from the U.S."
What People Are Saying
Kagan wrote in her dissent: "By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another."
Samuel Breidbart, a constitutional law expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, wrote on Bluesky: "SCOTUS continues to use the shadow docket to transform American government. Today, the Court allowed President Trump to fire three more independent agency commissioners—this time members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission—against the command of Congress."
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote in an X post Wednesday: "The CPSC assures that families & children, homes & businesses, are protected from defective, dangerous products. Dismantling this independent, bipartisan agency—as Trump seeks—is a dire disservice."
The House Committee on Small Businesses posted on X Wednesday: "@HouseSmallBiz applauds the SCOTUS decision to uphold @POTUS's termination of now-former CPSC Commissioner [Richard] Trumka. This decision is a win for small businesses across the country, who were unfairly harmed by Trumka's overburdensome regulations and abuse of his position."
What Happens Next
Other removals are making their way to the high court, including the firing of a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the very agency at issue in Humphrey's Executor.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this story.
Update 7/23/25, 9:25 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
