Supreme Court Gives Trump Green Light to Fire Consumer Watchdog Officials

The US Supreme Court has handed Donald Trump yet another win in his sweeping bid to tighten presidential control over federal agencies — this time, allowing him to oust three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), despite their congressionally approved terms.

In a brief but consequential unsigned order, the court’s conservative majority overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked the dismissals. The justices sided with Trump’s argument that even so-called “independent” commissions ultimately fall under executive authority — and that keeping fired officials in place posed a greater risk than removing them, even mid-lawsuit.

The decision means Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr — all appointed by former President Joe Biden — are officially out, despite their terms running until 2025, 2027, and 2028.The three commissioners had sued Trump’s administration in May, citing the 1935 Supreme Court precedent Humphrey’s Executor, which protects independent agency officials from being fired without cause. They argued their abrupt dismissal violated that legal standard and stripped the public of experienced oversight in a critical consumer watchdog agency.

Their firing, they claimed, was not just political but reckless.

But the Department of Justice backed Trump’s move, arguing that allowing appointees to resist removal undermines constitutional authority. “Even independent agencies like the CPSC fall under the executive branch,” DOJ lawyers stated.

US District Judge Matthew Maddox had initially blocked the firings while the lawsuit played out — but Trump’s team made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court, which wasted no time reversing that decision.The court’s three liberal justices were not having it. In a fiery dissent, Justice Elena Kagan blasted the majority’s logic as an attack on the balance of power.

“By allowing the President to remove Commissioners for no reason other than their party affiliation, the majority has negated Congress’s choice of agency bipartisanship and independence,” she wrote.

Kagan warned the ruling was part of a broader pattern — “an increase of executive power at the expense of legislative authority.”This isn’t an isolated case. The Supreme Court has increasingly greenlit Trump’s aggressive strategy to reshape federal institutions.

Back in May, the court gave him the go-ahead to fire Democratic appointees from both the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Earlier this month, it also allowed Trump’s campaign of mass layoffs at the Department of Education to proceed — part of his stated plan to “drain the swamp” by slashing federal agencies to the bone.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, meanwhile, is left scrambling. Its mission — protecting Americans from unsafe products — now has fewer watchdogs at the helm.

With input from Al Jazeera