(Bloomberg) — The US Supreme Court turned away a fresh bid to put independent federal agencies under direct presidential control, as the justices steered clear of a fight with implications for the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission.
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The high court, without comment, refused to hear an appeal from Leachco Inc., an Oklahoma-based company seeking to stop a complaint being pressed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Leachco contended the case was fundamentally flawed because the CPSC’s commissioners have job protections that insulate them from political accountability. The company argued in its appeal that the Constitution gives the president broad power to fire the heads of executive-branch agencies.
Leachco urged the Supreme Court to reconsider a 90-year-old ruling that paved the way for the independent agencies that now proliferate across the US government. The 1935 ruling, known as Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, upheld job protections enjoyed by FTC commissioners.
Overturning that ruling has become a top priority for anti-regulatory groups. The conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has slashed regulatory power in other contexts, rejected a similar appeal in October.
Leachco, a family-owned business that makes pillows and other products for families with children, was seeking to stop the CPSC’s pursuit of an administrative complaint. The agency alleges the company’s Podster infant lounger is a hazard connected to the deaths of at least two children.
A CPSC in-house judge rejected the complaint, but agency lawyers are appealing that decision to the commissioners themselves.
Congress established the CPSC in 1972. The commission sets standards for thousands of products — including cribs, cleaning products, kitchen appliances and all-terrain vehicles — and can seek multimillion-dollar fines from violators.
The agency is headed by five commissioners who are appointed by the president for seven-year terms and can be fired only “for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
The case is Leachco v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 24-156.
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