Latest news with #ConsumerProductSafety
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
US supreme court lets Trump fire three consumer product safety regulators
The US supreme court let Donald Trump on Wednesday remove three Democratic members of the government's top consumer product safety watchdog, boosting his power over federal agencies set up by Congress to be independent from presidential control. Granting a justice department request, the justices lifted Maryland-based US district judge Matthew Maddox's order that had blocked Trump from dismissing three Consumer Product Safety Commission members appointed by Democratic former president Joe Biden while a legal challenge to their removal proceeds. Maddox had ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in firing commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. The Consumer Product Safety Commission was created by Congress in 1972 and tasked with reducing the risk to consumers of injury or death from defective or harmful products. The agency sets safety standards, conducts product-safety investigations and issues recalls of hazardous products. To establish the five-member commission's independence from direct White House control, Congress authorized the president to fire commissioners only for neglect of duty or malfeasance, not at will. After being notified in May that Trump had fired them, Boyle, Hoehn-Saric and Trumka sued, arguing that their removals were without basis and that Trump had exceeded his authority. The staggered, seven-year terms of the commissioners were not set to expire until October 2025, 2027 and 2028, respectively, according to court filings. The justice department argued that the law shielding commissioners from being fired except for good cause violates the president's removal authority under the US constitution's provision delineating executive power. Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the commissioners in a 2 July ruling and ordered their reinstatement. The judge upheld the commission's removal protections under a nine-decade-old supreme court precedent that preserved similar protections for US Federal Trade Commission members. The Richmond, Virginia-based US fourth circuit court of appeals on 1 July denied the administration's request to halt Maddox's reinstatement order. This prompted the justice department's emergency filing to the supreme court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. The commissioners in their supreme court filing urged the justices to reject the administration's request. They said that allowing the dismissals would deprive the American public of critical consumer safety expertise and oversight. In May, the supreme court in a similar case allowed Trump to remove two Democratic members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) – despite job protections for these posts – while a legal challenge to those removals proceeded. The court in that ruling said the constitution gives the president wide latitude to fire government officials who wield executive power on his behalf and that the administration 'is likely to show that both the NLRB and MSPB exercise considerable executive power'. The supreme court has sided with Trump in a series of cases on an emergency basis since he returned to office in January, including clearing the way for his administration to pursue mass government job cuts, gut the Department of Education and implement some of his hardline immigration policies.
Washington Post
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Supreme Court allows Trump to remove consumer product safety regulators
The Supreme Court Wednesday cleared the way for President Donald Trump to remove the Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, allowing the administration to continue to seize control of the federal bureaucracy while litigation continues in the lower courts. The Trump administration asked the justices to allow the president to remove three of the five members of the commission that regulates the safety of everyday consumer products, such as strollers and bicycles, and coordinates product safety recalls.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump asks Supreme Court to remove 3 Democrats on the Consumer Product Safety Commission
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who were fired by President Donald Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge. Trump has the power to fire independent agency board members, the Justice Department argued in its filing to the high court, pointing to a May ruling by the Supreme Court that endorsed a robust view of presidential power. The administration asked the court for an immediate order to allow the firings to go forward, over the objections of lawyers for the commissioners. The commission helps protect consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls, suing errant companies and more. Trump fired the three Democrats on the five-member commission in May. They were serving seven-year terms after being nominated by President Joe Biden. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox in Baltimore ruled in June that the dismissals were unlawful. Maddox sought to distinguish the commission's role from those of other agencies where the Supreme Court has allowed firings to go forward. A month earlier, the high court's conservative majority declined to reinstate members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board finding that the Constitution appears to give the president the authority to fire the board members 'without cause.' The three liberal justices dissented. The administration has argued that all the agencies are under Trump's control as the head of the executive branch. Maddox, a Biden nominee, noted that it can be difficult to characterize the product safety commission's functions as purely executive. The fight over the president's power to fire could prompt the court to consider overturning a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey's Executor. In that case from 1935, the court unanimously held that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause. The decision ushered in an era of powerful independent federal agencies charged with regulating labor relations, employment discrimination, the airwaves and much else. But it has long rankled conservative legal theorists who argue the modern administrative state gets the Constitution all wrong because such agencies should answer to the president. The Consumer Product Safety Commission was created in 1972. Its five members must maintain a partisan split, with no more than three representing the president's party. They serve staggered terms. That structure ensures that each president has 'the opportunity to influence, but not control,' the commission, attorneys for the fired commissioners wrote in court filings. They argued the recent terminations could jeopardize the commission's independence. Mark Sherman, The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Asks Justices to Let Him Fire Consumer Product Safety Regulators
President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to let him fire the three Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission, which monitors the safety of items like toys, cribs and electronics. A federal law shields the officials, allowing them to be terminated only for 'neglect of duty or malfeasance.' Mr. Trump gave no reasons for removing them when his administration revealed his intentions in May, and has said that congressional limits on his ability to fire leaders of independent agencies are an unconstitutional check on his power to control the executive branch. In an interim order in May concerning the leaders of two other agencies, the Supreme Court appeared to agree. The majority wrote that Mr. Trump could remove officials who exercise power on his behalf 'because the Constitution vests the executive power in the president.' The earlier cases concerned Cathy A. Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Gwynne A. Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Board. Those cases are pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The lower-court judge who ruled that the consumer agency's leaders could not be fired, Judge Matthew J. Maddox of the Federal District Court in Maryland, cited a 1935 Supreme Court ruling in his decision in June. Judge Maddox, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., said the 1935 precedent, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, barred the firings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., rejected the administration's request for a pause of Judge Maddox's ruling in an unsigned ruling on Tuesday. In a concurring opinion, Judge James A. Wynn Jr., who was appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote that Humphrey's Executor had not been overruled and governed the case. In the administration's emergency application, D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, said the court's emergency order in May 'squarely controls this case.' 'If anything,' he wrote, 'this is an even stronger case for a stay. President Trump decided to remove three commissioners who would otherwise make up a majority of the C.P.S.C., and whose actions since their putative reinstatement only underscore their hostility to the president's agenda.'
CNN
02-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Trump urges Supreme Court to let him fire members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission
President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to permit the firing of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as the White House continues to attempt to assert more control over independent agencies. Trump dismissed the three Joe Biden-appointees in May, but a federal district court last month ordered their reinstatement. The administration is asking the Supreme Court to pause the lower court order, a move that would take the three commissioners off the board again. The appeal is the latest to reach the high court dealing with the administration's power to fire board members at agencies Congress set up to have independence from the whims of the White House. The court has been receptive to Trump's arguments in earlier cases, giving his administration more control over those agencies – at least in the short term. The litigation around the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has 'thrown the agency into chaos,' the Trump administration told the Supreme Court and has 'put agency staff in the untenable position of deciding which commissioners' directives to follow.' The agency is charged with protecting consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls and taking other enforcement steps. Trump has had considerable success with similar claims over independent agencies at the Supreme Court. In May, the court, in an unsigned opinion, allowed Trump to fire officials at two independent federal labor agencies that enforce worker protections. The Department of Justice heavily cited that outcome in its appeal to the high court Wednesday. 'Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the president,' the court wrote in its opinion at the time, 'he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents.' Writing for the dissenting justices, Justice Elena Kagan said the majority had effectively overruled a decades-old Supreme Court case, Humphrey's Executor v. US, that allowed Congress to require presidents to show cause – such as malfeasance – before dismissing board members overseeing independent agencies. In the Consumer Product Safety Commission case now pending, the Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected Trump's appeal – despite the outcome in the earlier case. In a concurring opinion, US Circuit Judge James Wynn noted that the Supreme Court had not yet technically overturned Humphrey's Executor. 'That precedent remains binding on this court unless and until the Supreme Court overrules it,' wrote Wynn, who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama. In its filing Wednesday, the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to issue an immediate 'administrative stay' that would let Trump keep the members off the board for a few days while the court considers the case. The board members fired back rapidly with a brief Wednesday rejecting the need for that outcome. Because the board members are 'currently serving and have been since June 13,' they told the court, 'an administrative stay would disrupt the status quo.'
