In an important development since our June 24, 2025 article, on July 1, 2025, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump administration’s motion to stay a district court’s decision reinstating three Democratic commissioners to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Immediately after the Fourth Circuit’s decision, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the highest court to issue a stay of the district court’s order and once again remove the commissioners while the Fourth Circuit considers the merits of the Administration’s appeal, a process that could take many months. The Administration also asks the Supreme Court to construe its application as a petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment to address 1) the constitutional question of the President’s removal authority, and 2) whether the district court exceeded its authority by ordering the three terminated commissioners to be reinstated.

As we previously discussed, former Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Commissioners Mary Boyle and Richard Trumka were reinstated on June 13, 2025, after the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ruled that their firing violated federal law. The Administration appealed the district court’s decision to the Fourth Circuit and simultaneously asked both the district court and the appellate court to pause the reinstatement order while the Fourth Circuit considers the appeal on the merits. Both courts denied the stay requests before them, prompting the Administration’s emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on July 2, 2025.

It now falls to the Supreme Court to decide the limits of executive power over independent agencies such as the CPSC, and whether the seminal Humphrey’s Executor case (which generally held that the Executive cannot remove independent agency members except for cause) remains good law. The Administration’s brief puts the question squarely to the Supreme Court, saying: “This Court should grant certiorari before judgment now, hear argument in the fall, and put a speedy end to the disruption being caused by uncertainty about the scope of Humphrey’s Executor.” While it is unknown how quickly the Supreme Court may take up the case, if and when it does, its decision will undoubtedly have far-reaching effects for the authority of the Executive over all independent federal agencies and the potential to reshape many federal agencies as we know them.