SCOTUS threatens 90-year precedent, Kagan sounds alarm

The Supreme Court granted Donald Trump the authority to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), prompting sharp criticism from the court’s liberal justices. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Elena Kagan accused the conservative majority of having “all but overturned” a landmark 1935 precedent, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States. That ruling established that the president can not fire members of independent boards without cause.

The CPSC

The CPSC, a five-member commission requiring a partisan split, is tasked with protecting the public from “unreasonable risk of injuries associated with consumer products” through recalls, enforcement of safety standards, product bans and legal actions against noncompliant companies. The three commissioners in question — nominated by President Joe Biden — were serving seven-year terms before Trump terminated them in May. A federal judge later reinstated the commissioners, but the Justice Department filed an emergency appeal arguing that the agency falls under presidential control and that Trump could remove them without cause. The High Court sided with Trump by granting the stay application, effectively allowing the firings to proceed.

The Supreme Court

Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticized the decision as undermining the independence of federal agencies. “As I explained in Wilcox, we held in Humphrey’s that independent agencies like the CPSC (and NLRB and MSPB) do not violate the Constitution’s separation of powers,” she wrote. “On the Court’s emergency docket — which means ‘on a short fuse without benefit of full briefing and oral argument’ — the majority has effectively expunged Humphrey’s from the U.S.”

Kagan’s warning

Kagan warned that such actions could erode the separation of powers, writing, “By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another. Respectfully, I dissent.” The decision drew immediate political reaction. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, posted on X, “The CPSC assures that families [and] children, homes [and] businesses, are protected from defective, dangerous products. Dismantling this independent, bipartisan agency — as Trump seeks — is a dire disservice.”

Supreme Court decision

The House Committee on Small Business celebrated the ruling. In a post on X, the committee stated, “@HouseSmallBiz applauds the SCOTUS decision to uphold @POTUS’s termination of now-former CPSC Commissioner [Richard] Trumka. This decision is a win for small businesses across the country, who were unfairly harmed by Trumka’s overburdensome regulations and abuse of his position.” While the Supreme Court has not formally overturned Humphrey’s Executor, the ruling signals a shift that could have lasting consequences for the autonomy of independent federal agencies.

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