The Supreme Court’s decision this week affirming the president’s authority to remove the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission may not dominate headlines for long, but it could mark a turning point in the fight against the bloated, unaccountable administrative state. It’s clear the Trump administration is right to make reforming the CPSC, and agencies like it, a top priority.
In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the statutory restrictions protecting the CPSC’s chair from being removed by the president were unconstitutional. In doing so, the court rightly reasserted a foundational principle of American government: that the executive power resides with the elected president, not with unaccountable bureaucrats serving indefinite terms.
NBC News reported on the case with thinly veiled disdain for the ruling and the Trump administration’s intent to rein in regulatory overreach. Their piece characterizes the court’s decision as “curbing the independence” of the CPSC, and refers to the agency as a “little-known” but “important” body that protects consumers. What the NBC piece fails to grapple with is the extent to which the CPSC has exerted its authority without restraint, issuing rules, imposing fines, and destroying businesses with little accountability to voters or elected officials.
The Pacific Legal Foundation, which has led the legal charge against this kind of administrative overreach, praised the ruling in a statement that cuts to the heart of the issue:
“We applaud the Supreme Court’s decision which confirms that the President is in fact the head of the Executive Branch. For too long, independent agencies have acted as a fourth branch of government — free from constitutional constraints. Today’s ruling helps ensure that leaders of the government’s alphabet soup agencies remain accountable to the President.”
This isn’t just about abstract constitutional theory. The power of agencies such as the CPSC has real consequences for small businesses, entrepreneurs, and families across the country.
In March, I wrote about one such case for the Washington Examiner: the heartbreaking saga of Leachco, a family-owned company based in Oklahoma that the CPSC targeted. Leachco, founded by Jamie Leach, created the “Podster” — a baby lounger that became a lifeline for exhausted parents. Despite clear warnings not to leave babies unattended or use the product for sleep, the CPSC demanded a recall after two tragic deaths occurred when the Podster was misused in direct violation of those instructions.
Leachco is not a fly-by-night operation hocking dangerous junk. It’s a company founded by a mother and her engineer husband to solve a problem they faced themselves. Over 180,000 families have used the Podster. But none of that mattered to the CPSC.
Instead of focusing on educating parents or enforcing common-sense safety practices, the CPSC sought to destroy Leachco, despite the fact that their product, when used as intended, is safe. The commission even bypassed the long-standing, voluntary recall process and moved directly to force a mandatory recall, which undermines the cooperation that has made U.S. product safety enforcement both rigorous and fair for decades.
The case illustrates exactly why the CPSC is ripe for reform. Its commissioners have wielded extraordinary authority without being accountable to the people or even the president.
The Supreme Court’s ruling vindicates the Pacific Legal Foundation’s efforts in multiple cases challenging those protections. For years, the PLF has argued that these so-called “independent” agencies function outside the Constitution’s design. By striking down those protections, the court has restored a measure of democratic accountability to powerful regulators.
As NBC News noted, though with clear alarm, this ruling aligns with President Donald Trump’s broader deregulatory agenda. Trump has long argued that unaccountable federal agencies wield too much power and have choked off innovation and economic growth. Critics may call it politicization, but Trump’s promise to bring the administrative state to heel is a principled and necessary correction to decades of regulatory drift.
NBC’s article frames the ruling as an attack on “independent” governance, warning that it “gives the president more power to fire government officials.” But that’s not a bug, that’s the point. Voters elect presidents to execute the laws. When presidents are blocked from removing unelected bureaucrats who thwart their agendas, we don’t have a representative democracy; we have a technocracy.
With this ruling, the Supreme Court has reasserted that the president, not a commission of career regulators, is the head of the executive branch. That matters not just for abstract governance but also for the livelihoods of small business owners like Leach, who are too often crushed by faceless bureaucrats they have no means to challenge or appeal to.
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The CPSC’s mission of protecting consumers is important. But like every government agency, it must operate within the bounds of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has reminded us of that, and the Trump administration is right to act on it.
It’s time to dismantle the fourth branch — and the CPSC is a good place to start.
Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a homeschooling mother of six and a writer. She is the bestselling coauthor of Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation.
