AG Reyes Joins Efforts to Uphold Constitutionality for Federal Agencies

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined 17 attorneys general on an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in Leachco v. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The filing, which was led by the State of West Virginia, requests that the nation's high court overrule a New Deal-era case that has long given federal agencies great power with little accountability.

At issue is the Supreme Court's opinion in Humphrey's Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602 (1935), which endorsed Congress limiting the President's power to remove agency officials. Leachco, a small business, is asking the Supreme Court to revisit Humphrey's Executor in the context of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose commissioners and administrative law judges operate with few mechanisms of accountability, but nevertheless set nationwide regulatory policies. As a result of that lack of political accountability, the CPSC often tramples state law. Both the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled against Leachco, leading to this filing at the U.S. Supreme Court.

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that "the CPSC's structure is inconsistent with basic separation-of-powers principles," that "agency independence does more harm than good," and that "separation-of-powers violations create immediate, irreparable harms."

As the coalition writes, "The CPSC is a special problem for States because the Commission is operating in a field - 'consumer protection' - that is 'traditionally regulated by the [S]tates,' creating a risk that States will be pushed to the side. Before the Commission can start rewriting consumer-protection law, States should at least have a say. But independent agencies like the CPSC have fewer access points because they 'lack sufficient accountability to the President,' so States are often left out in the cold."

Joining Utah and West Virginia on the brief were the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Read the brief here.