Latest news with #MaryBoyle
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US Supreme Court lets Trump remove consumer product safety commissioners for now
WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court let Republican President 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 U.S. 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 U.S. Constitution's provision delineating executive power. Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the commissioners in a July 2 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 U.S. Federal Trade Commission members. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 1 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 and Merit Systems Protection Board - 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.
Fox News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Trump turns to Supreme Court in fight to oust Biden-era consumer safety officials
President Donald Trump's Justice Department filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, seeking to overturn lower court rulings that blocked the administration from firing three Biden-appointed regulators. The emergency appeal asks the High Court to allow the Trump administration to fire three members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a five-member independent regulatory board that sets standards and oversees safety for thousands of consumer products. The appeal comes after the Supreme Court, in May, granted a separate emergency appeal request from the Trump administration pertaining to the firing of two Biden-appointed agency officials from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). "It's outrageous that we must once again seek Supreme Court intervention because rogue leftist judges in lower courts continue to defy the high court's clear rulings," said White House spokesperson Harrison Fields. "The Supreme Court decisively upheld the president's constitutional authority to fire and remove executive officers exercising his power, yet this ongoing assault by activist judges undermines that victory," he continued. "President Trump remains committed to fulfilling the American people's mandate by effectively leading the executive branch, despite these relentless obstructions." Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. were appointed to serve seven-year terms on the independent government agency by former President Joe Biden. Their positions have historically been protected from retribution, as they can only be terminated for neglect or malfeasance. After Trump attempted to fire the three Democratic regulators, they sued, arguing the president sought to remove them without due cause. Eventually, a federal judge in Maryland agreed with them, and this week an appeals court upheld that ruling. However, according to the emergency appeal from the Trump administration, submitted to the High Court on Wednesday morning, the three regulators in question have shown "hostility to the President's agenda" and taken actions that have "thrown the agency into chaos." The emergency appeal to the Supreme Court added that "none of this should be possible" after the High Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration's decision to fire two executive branch labor relations officials. "None of this should be possible after Wilcox, which squarely controls this case. Like the NLRB and MSPB in Wilcox, the CPSC exercises 'considerable executive power,' 145 S. Ct. at 1415—for instance, by issuing rules, adjudicating administrative proceedings, issuing subpoenas, bringing enforcement suits seeking civil penalties, and (with the concurrence of the Attorney General) even prosecuting criminal cases," Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. The request, according to Politico, will go to Chief Justice John Roberts, who is in charge of emergency appeals stemming from the appeals court that upheld the previous Maryland court ruling blocking the Trump administration's firings.
CBS News
02-07-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Trump asks Supreme Court to let him fire members of Consumer Product Safety Commission
Washington — President Trump's administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to allow him to fire three members of the independent Consumer Product Safety Commission. The request to the high court by Solicitor General D. John Sauer arose from a federal judge's decision earlier this month that found Mr. Trump's removal of the three commissioners — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — was unlawful and blocked their terminations. The officials had been named to the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission by former President Joe Biden for seven-year terms. Boyle's term was set to end in October, Hoehn-Saric's time on the panel was due to end in October 2027 and Trumka's in October 2028. The commission sets consumer product safety standards, can order product recalls and bring civil suits against companies. The three members were told in May that their positions were terminated, effective immediately. Under federal law, a president cannot remove a commissioner at-will, but only for neglect of duty or malfeasance. Removal restrictions like those governing the Consumer Product Safety Commission have been put in place by Congress to insulate independent agencies from politics. But Mr. Trump has sought to test his removal powers through a series of firings targeting members of those entities. Following their firings, the commissioners sued and asked a federal judge in Maryland, where the Consumer Product Safety Commission is headquartered, to restore them to their positions. They succeeded in their bid earlier this month, when U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox allowed the three commissioners to resume their roles. "Depriving this five-member commission of three of its sitting members threatens severe impairment of its ability to fulfill its statutory mandates and advance the public's interest in safe consumer products," Maddox wrote in his decision. "This hardship and threat to public safety significantly outweighs any hardship defendants might suffer from plaintiffs' participation on the CPSC." A unanimous panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit declined to block the district court's decision and allow Mr. Trump to fire the commissioners. The commissioners, Judge James Wynn wrote in a brief opinion, "were appointed to serve fixed terms with statutory protections designed to preserve the commission's independence and partisan balance. Permitting their unlawful removal would thwart that purpose and deprive the public of the commission's full expertise and oversight. And because the attempted removals were unlawful, the Plaintiff-Commissioners never ceased to lawfully occupy their offices." Sauer's emergency appeal to the Supreme Court is the third involving the president's power to remove executive officers, which the administration has argued is generally unrestricted. The justices in May cleared the way for Mr. Trump to remove without cause two members of two federal independent labor boards while legal fights over their terminations move forward. Over the dissent of the three liberal justices, the high court said in its unsigned decision that it "reflects our judgment that the government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty." Sauer said that May decision from the high court regarding the earlier removals should have foreclosed the reinstatement of the Consumer Product Safety Commission members. The district court's order, he wrote, effectively transfers control of the panel from Mr. Trump to three members who were appointed by his predecessor. "That plain-as-day affront to the President's fundamental Article II powers warrants intervention now," the solicitor general wrote. Sauer asked the high court to act immediately and issue a brief administrative stay that would allow it more time to consider his request for emergency relief. Lawyers for the commissioners opposed that request for swift action, noting that they have been serving in their roles in the nearly three weeks since the district judge ruled in their favor. The Trump administration, the lawyers said, did not identify any harm that would stem from the commissioner's continued service during the time it will take for the Supreme Court to rule.
Fox News
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Biden-appointed judge thwarts Trump's attempt to clean house at consumer safety agency
A federal judge in Maryland on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the authority to fire three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ordered their reinstatement — teeing up another high-stakes court clash centered on Trump's ability as commander-in-chief to remove or otherwise control the members of independent agencies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, a Biden appointee, sided with the three ousted members of the board — Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. — in ruling that their firings were unlawful and ordered all three members to be reinstated to their posts. In his ruling, Maddox said that the tenured design and protection of the five-member, staggered-term CPSC board does "not interfere with" Trump's executive branch powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The decision is a near-term blow for Trump, and comes just weeks after the Supreme Court last month agreed to uphold, for now, Trump's removal of two Democratic appointees from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Merit Systems Protections Board (MSPB). Both board members had challenged their terminations as "unlawful" in separate lawsuits filed in D.C. federal court. The Supreme Court voted 6-3 in May to temporarily allow the firing of both board members, siding with lawyers for the Trump administration, who had urged the justices to keep both members on the job while the case continued to move through the lower courts. In his ruling, Maddox sought to distinguish those cases from the terminations of members of the CPSC board and said that the Trump administration, in this case, had failed to identify neglect or malfeasance by any other Senate-confirmed commissioners on the CPSC, which is required by law to justify their removals. "For the reasons set forth below, the Court finds no constitutional defect in the statutory restriction on Plaintiffs' removal and that Plaintiffs' purported removal from office was unlawful," he said in the order. "The Court shall enter an Order granting Plaintiffs' motion, denying Defendants' motion, and providing declaratory and injunctive relief permitting Plaintiffs to resume their duties as CPSC Commissioners." The decision clears the way for the members to return to their roles on the board, pending an appeal to higher courts by the Trump administration. The case is the latest in a string of challenges centered on Trump's ability to remove members of independent boards. Like the NLRB and MSPB rulings, it centers on the 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey's Executor, in which the court unanimously ruled that presidents cannot fire independent board members without cause. Maddox invoked the uncertainty created by the preliminary posture of the NLRB and MSPB cases, which saw both plaintiffs removed and reinstated to their positions multiple times — which he said was the basis for ordering more permanent injunctive relief. "Disruption might have resulted in the instant case if Plaintiffs had been reinstated while this case was in its preliminary posture, only to have the Court later deny relief in its final judgment and subject Plaintiffs to removal again," said Maddox. "The risk of such disruption is no longer a factor now that the Court is granting permanent injunctive relief as a final judgment."
Reuters
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US judge orders Trump to reinstate fired product safety commissioners
June 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully removed three Democratic members of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and ordered the agency to reinstate them. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox in Maryland said in his ruling, opens new tab that Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's administration overstepped its authority when it dismissed commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr. Boyle, Hoehn-Saric and Trumka Jr., who sued the administration in May, were appointed to the five-member commission by Democratic former President Joe Biden. The president can remove commissioners only for neglect of duty or malfeasance. Maddox said the plaintiffs 'have performed ably in their roles' and that the administration had not presented a justification for terminating them. "The court finds it to be in the public interest to have the persons duly appointed to occupy these key leadership positions resume their roles," Maddox wrote. The White House and Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ruling can be appealed to the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A lawyer for the commissioners, Nick Sansone, welcomed Maddox's ruling in a statement. 'Congress structured the CPSC as an independent agency so that the safety of American consumers wouldn't be subject to political whims and industry pressure,' Sansone said. 'The court's ruling upholds that sound legislative choice.' The commission was founded in 1972 and tasked by Congress with shielding consumers from injury or death from defective or harmful products. Trump has faced lawsuits over his efforts to remove members of other agencies. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court said the administration could bar two Democratic members of federal labor boards from serving in their posts while they challenge their dismissal by the administration.
