Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Supreme Court lets Trump remove three Consumer Product Safety commissioners
The unsigned July 2025 order extended the Court’s earlier emergency orders on agency removals. In June 2026 the Court made the rule permanent by overruling Humphrey’s Executor.
What happened
In May 2025, Trump fired Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr., the three Democratic members of the five-member Consumer Product Safety Commission. The statute allows removal only for neglect of duty or malfeasance. A Maryland judge ruled the firings unlawful and reinstated the three on June 13.
On July 23, 2025, the Supreme Court, in an unsigned order, stayed the Maryland ruling. The 6-3 majority said the case was “squarely controlled” by its May 22 order in Trump v. Wilcox, which allowed removal of members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board. Solicitor General D. John Sauer had asked for the stay on July 2.
Justice Kagan, joined by Sotomayor and Jackson, dissented, writing that the majority had “negated Congress’s choice of agency bipartisanship and independence.” Justice Kavanaugh urged the Court to take up the merits. On June 29, 2026, in Trump v. Slaughter, the Court overruled Humphrey’s Executor outright.
Who benefited
Trump gained a Republican-only CPSC and a third consecutive emergency-docket win. Each established that independent-agency protections would not be enforced while litigation ran. Manufacturers facing product-safety rules and recalls gained a commission without dissenting members.
Who wanted something
Trump fired the commissioners, and the Solicitor General’s office pursued the stay. Peter Feldman, the acting chairman, led the remaining two-member commission. The conservative legal movement had long targeted Humphrey’s Executor, and Kavanaugh’s concurrence signaled the Court’s readiness to revisit it.
Who lost out
The three fired commissioners were removed years before their terms ended. Consumers lost a bipartisan safety regulator with independence to act against products sold by allies of the White House. Congress’s design for bipartisan commissions was negated by order, without a reasoned decision on the merits.
Why it matters
The order showed how the emergency docket was used to change the structure of government piece by piece. Justice Kagan wrote that it was done with the scantiest of explanations. By the time the Court ruled on the merits in June 2026, every independent commission Trump had targeted had operated under his control for a year.
Sources Supreme Court of the United States (primary)SCOTUSblogSupreme Court of the United States (primary)