President Donald Trump attracted controversy in May after he removed three Democrat-appointed members from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

While his decision left liberals seething, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the president's plan can go ahead. 

Justices overturn injunction

According to Newsmax, that decision came down on Wednesday from the six conservative members of America's highest judicial body.

It came in response to an emergency appeal which had been filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) following an injunction issued last month from U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox, who was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2023.

He ordered CPSC Commissioners Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, and Richard Trumka Jr. to be reinstated, finding that their termination had been unlawful.

Maddox attempted to draw a distinction between their case and the fact that the Supreme Court had previously allowed Trump to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Kagan pens dissent

Yet as The Hill reported, Wednesday's majority opinion concluded that the cases did not differ in "any pertinent respect."

"Although our interim orders are not conclusive as to the merits, they inform how a court should exercise its equitable discretion in like cases," it read.

However, that conclusion was not accepted by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who signed on to a dissent authored by Justice Elena Kagan.

The Supreme Court lets Trump fire federal product safety commissioners, liberal justices dissent https://t.co/pwyWeneN0g

— The Hill (@thehill) July 23, 2025

Kagan asserted that the conservative majority had "negated Congress's choice of agency bipartisanship and independence."

Docketing request declined

"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," she added.

For his part, Solicitor General D. John Sauer unsuccessfully argued that the Supreme Court should add the CPSC case to its normal docket so it can be resolved in short order rather than going through the appellate process.

"This case illustrates that the sooner this Court resolves the merits of this application and decides foundational questions about the scope of the President’s removal authority, the better," Sauer maintained.

The Hill noted that although the majority rejected Sauer's suggestion, he did receive a sympathetic response from Justice Brett Kavanaugh.