Trump appeals reinstatement of three Biden-appointed product safety commissioners

Gabriella Fine, Baltimore Sun on Jun 16, 2025

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The Trump administration filed a notice of appeal Monday afternoon, after a federal judge recently ruled that President Donald Trump’s removal of three Biden-appointed U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) members was unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox ruled Friday that the president had fired former commissioners Richard Trumka Jr., Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Mary Boyle without proper justification — as CPSC commissioners can only be removed due to “neglect of duty or malfeasance.”

Nicolas Sansone, an attorney for the commissioners, said he expects the Trump administration will request that the district court stay its ruling as the appeal proceeds. “We will strongly oppose any such request,” Sansone told The Sun in an email.

While Sansone said his team believes that Maddox’s decision “was an eminently sound exercise of the court’s discretion,” he added they will “explain as much to the Fourth Circuit, and we hope that it will promptly affirm Judge Maddox’s well-reasoned opinion.”

The CPSC was established in 1972 as an independent federal regulatory agency to protect consumers from harm caused by commercial products. It recalls hazardous products, conducts product-safety research and sets consumer-product safety standards. CPSC employs roughly 520 people. Commissioners serve staggered seven-year terms. The agency was intended to function without constraint from partisan politics.

In May, the three commissioners filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing that their terminations were illegal and “exceed the President’s constitutional and statutory authority.”

When Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the change to the commission by a reporter during a press briefing in May, she responded, “It’s a federal agency within which branch? It’s the executive branch. Who is the head of the executive branch? The president of the United States.”

The reporter chimed in, “It was also created by Congress.” Leavitt replied, “He has the right to fire people within the executive branch.”

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