The order allows the dismissal of Biden appointees to the Consumer Product Safety Commission–Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr.
The Supreme Court on July 23 allowed President Donald Trump to fire three Biden appointees at the Consumer Product Safety Commission for now.The new ruling in Trump v. Boyle lifts a lower court order blocking the dismissals, allowing litigation over the firings to continue in the lower courts.
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the ruling.
In May, Trump removed three members of the commission: Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr., all of whom had been appointed by President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox of Maryland blocked the firings, relying on a statute that he said insulates commission members from removal at will. Maddox countermanded Trump’s decision and ordered the three individuals reinstated.
The judge said removing three sitting members of the five-member commission “threatens severe impairment of [the commission’s] ability to fulfill its statutory mandates and advance the public’s interest in safe consumer products.”
The Trump administration asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to put a hold on Maddox’s order. On July 1, it declined to do so.
In the Supreme Court application the government filed on July 2, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the three individuals’ continued presence on the commission has been disruptive.“In light of the untenable chaos caused by respondents’ court-ordered takeover of the CPSC, by respondents’ aggressive efforts to wield executive power while stay proceedings remain ongoing, and by one of the reinstated Commissioner’s threats to take action against staff members who do not carry out his directives, this Court’s prompt intervention is needed,” the application said.
Since his second term began in January, Trump has issued orders removing personnel from independent federal agencies such as the commission whose appointees traditionally have been shielded from termination without cause. Many of the firings have been blocked by the courts, though in some cases the Supreme Court has recognized—at least on a provisional basis—his authority to order dismissals from independent federal agencies. This is a developing story and will be updated.
