Supreme Court backs Trump's ability to fire independent agency leaders as legal battles take shape

The Supreme Court expressed displeasure Wednesday with lower court judges who continue to block President Trump‘s firing of agency heads, saying it has made clear the president can carry out firings while the legal battles develop.

The court ruled specifically that Mr. Trump can – at least for now – boot three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission

In an unusually stern order, the high court majority said it had settled the issue earlier this year when it allowed Mr. Trump to carry out the firing of members of the National Labor Relations Board.

The justices said that should have been a signal to lower court judges.

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

The majority said that should apply to any case in which the president is firing someone who exercises substantial executive authority.

The high court’s three Democratic appointees dissented, saying their colleagues were prematurely rushing to Mr. Trump’s aid.

Justice Elena Kagan said the court, without a full hearing on the issues, has effectively overturned a 1935 case and bequeathed substantial new firing powers on the president.

“It has accomplished those ends with the scantiest of explanations,” she wrote. “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.”

At issue are “independent agencies” such as the CPSC, the NLRB and a host of others that Congress set up to have some independence from the president. The law says their directors or board members can be fired only for cause.

Mr. Trump argues that restricts his ability to manage the executive branch, where he must have people responsive to him.

That challenges the 1935 ruling in Humphrey’s Executor, a case in which the justices blocked President Franklin D. Roosevelt from firing a member of the Federal Trade Commission.

The CPSC is aimed at protecting consumers from products that are dangerous or recalled.

The three members Mr. Trump fired were Alexander Hoehn-Saric, Mary Boyle and Richard Trumka Jr., all Biden picks whom Mr. Trump fired in May.

They sued to stop the firing and won in a federal district court in Maryland.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined the Trump administration’s request to intervene, which sent the Justice Department to the Supreme Court.