Richard Trumka Jr., Mary Boyle, and Alexander Hoehn-Saric
As the second Trump administration began to unfold, a friend of mine said the courts would save us. My reply was that we were both in a honeymoon period – Trump and the American public – until issues reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
I was right. The highest court in the land, overwhelmed with Trump appointees, is doing his bidding.
In an unsigned brief order Wednesday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration to go ahead with the removal of the three Democratic commissioners of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, while legal challenges continue in lower courts.
Congress created the CPSC, an independent agency of five bipartisan commissioners, in 1972 to prevent the risk of injury or death from consumer products. The agency has jurisdiction over thousands of household products, including toys, cribs, furniture, appliances, and electronics. It issues recalls and plays a critical role at U.S. ports of entry, inspecting potentially dangerous imported products.
The dispute centers on presidential authority to remove members of independent federal agencies. CPSC commissioners can’t be removed except for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, according to laws regulating the agency’s work.
“This provision provides a degree of insultation so that commissioners aren’t removed for political reasons,” Courtney Griffin, director of consumer product safety at Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocacy group, said in a statement.
Despite what the what the law requires, the Trump administration removed the three Democratic commissioners.
The fired commissioners challenged their removal in federal court and were temporarily reinstated by the U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox on June 13. On July 1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request to stop the reinstatement order.
The Trump administration then asked for an emergency order from the Supreme Court.
“Despite clear statutory protections against such removal, the Supreme Court’s decision allows the President to fire our nation’s product safety watchdogs without cause,” Griffin said. “Speak with any parent who has lost a child – or any American who has been maimed – by a dangerous product, and they will tell you there is nothing political about product safety.”
The decision threatens to replace evidence-based safety with partisan loyalty, he said, adding American families, especially American children deserve a strong, independent safety agency.
While the order temporarily resolves the immediate question over the three commissioners’ status, the underlying legal challenge continues.
“The case has implications for the balance of power between the executive branch and independent agencies, which were designed to operate away from immediate political pressures,” Griffin said.
