President Donald Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to stay a lower-court order that reinstated three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission whom the president dismissed in May. The emergency application, the administration’s 20th such appeal to the high court, seeks permission to proceed with the firings of Mary Boyle, Alexander Hoehn-Saric and Richard Trumka Jr., who together form a majority on the five-member board. U.S. District Judge Matthew Maddox ruled last month that the president overstepped his authority, citing statutory limits that allow CPSC commissioners to be removed only for neglect of duty or malfeasance. On Tuesday the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to pause Maddox’s order, prompting Solicitor General D. John Sauer to turn to the Supreme Court for an immediate administrative stay. The Justice Department argued that the CPSC wields significant executive power and that the district court’s order “transfers control” of the agency from the president to officials appointed by his predecessor. The commissioners countered that they have lawfully served since their June 13 reinstatement and that removal restrictions imposed by Congress preserve the commission’s independence and partisan balance. The dispute follows a May 22 Supreme Court order allowing Trump to keep two labor-board officials off the job during pending litigation and could give the justices another opportunity to revisit Humphrey’s Executor, the 1935 decision that underpins protections for members of many independent federal agencies. The court is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to grant the stay and, potentially, take up the case on the merits.