Cases
MagnetSafety.org v. CPSC
CASE SUMMARY
In Zen Magnets, LLC v. CPSC, a U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals panel including then-Judge Neil Gorsuch vacated a 2014 CPSC magnet ban. In September 2022, CPSC promulgated a similar final rule. NCLA represents MagnetSafety.org, the Hobby Manufacturers Association and the National Retail Hobby Stores Association in this case. In adopting the new rule, CPSC repeated errors that led the Tenth Circuit to sideline the previous ban. CPSC again did not account for “a known and significant change or trend in the data,” this time failing to disaggregate the magnet ingestion increase from the increased ingestion of small items and differentiate between high-powered and other kinds of magnets, making it impossible to confidently say that substantial evidence supports CPSC’s cost-benefit analysis.
At least four domestic voluntary standards and two international standards already govern these magnets. Despite the statutory requirement to rely on voluntary standards to the greatest possible extent, CPSC did not properly evaluate them, pushed for a mandatory rule, and failed to recall or limit importation of dangerous products. Instead, CPSC banned all products containing separable magnets, grossly overestimating the costs and underestimating the benefits of keeping these products on the market.
The Constitution obliges the President alone “to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” The “take Care” Clause means only executive officers answerable to the President may exercise executive power. The President must be able to terminate such officials to ensure his control over them. The Tenth Circuit should follow precedent set in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S. decision by holding CPSC’s exercise of executive power unconstitutional. The barriers to removal upheld in that case were themselves unconstitutional too. In other words, for-cause removal protection for CPSC Commissioners is unconstitutional because Humphrey’s must be rejected and because it must be followed.