On September 12, 2024, The Buckeye Institute joined forces with the Cato Institute and the National Federation of Independent Business to file an amicus brief in Leachco, Inc. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case and terminate the federal government’s use of what they describe as unconstitutional in-house tribunals.
“Not only does the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s structure violate the Constitution, it violates any common understanding of fairness,” stated David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “The agency makes its own rules, undertakes its own investigations, oversees its own hearings, imposes its own punishments, and hears appeals to its own rulings. And when the agency abuses its power, there is little accountability to elected officials.”
In their brief, amici contend that: 1) the structure of the CPSC breaches the "separation of powers scheme that the Constitution requires," 2) despite wielding substantial executive power, CPSC commissioners are insulated from accountability and removal from office, and 3) this structure along with in-house tribunals deprives citizens of their constitutional right to a hearing before an independent judge and jury.
Pacific Legal Foundation represents Leachco in its effort to “block CPSC’s abusive and unconstitutional in-house tribunal process.”