NCLA Plans to Sue CPSC over Comm’r Trumka’s Illegal Efforts to Stop Sales of Weighted Sleep Sacks
09 Mayo 2024 - 11:31AM
Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance sent a formal letter
notifying the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of its
intent to file suit against the agency for Commissioner Richard
Trumka’s violating NCLA client Dreamland Baby Co.’s constitutional
and statutory rights. Dreamland creates infant and toddler
products. Commissioner Trumka issued disparaging statements to the
general public and to retailers creating the false impression that
the company’s wearable infant sleep sacks have caused infant
deaths. NCLA warns CPSC and Trumka to preserve all documentation
and internal and external communications related to Dreamland,
determined to stop this illegal attack on the company.
Trumka’s unlawful campaign against NCLA’s client
convinced multiple retailers to stop selling the company’s products
and has significantly impacted Dreamland’s ability to continue
operations. Comm’r Trumka made a proposal to “pursue a mandatory
standard to address foreseeable risks posed by” weighted infant
sleep products, which would have required CPSC to “update all safe
sleep messaging and guidance to incorporate” CDC and NIH’s “recent
advice on weighted infant sleep products.” CPSC rejected that
proposal by a 3-1 vote in November, with Chairman Alexander
Hoehn-Saric saying he did not believe the agency had conducted
enough research to pursue rulemaking on the issue in 2024.
Despite losing this vote, Comm’r Trumka
subsequently sent retailers letters disparaging Dreamland’s
products and issued a public statement saying “Beware: Weighted
Infant Swaddles and Blankets are Unsafe for Sleep; Retailers Should
Consider Stopping Sales.” These actions disregard the Consumer
Product Safety Act’s required rulemaking processes, preference for
voluntary standards, and show impermissible bias against
Dreamland.
Dreamland Baby founder and CEO Tara Williams
created the company’s first weighted wearable sleep blanket sack
for her own son when he was an infant. The woman-owned small
business has gone on to help more than a million families
worldwide. Dreamland is already working with industry counterparts,
CPSC staff, and consumers to develop a voluntary standard including
these products and other wearable blankets and swaddles. Trumka’s
cancel-now-ask-questions-never approach harms families who seek
safe and effective sleep solutions.
NCLA released the following
statements:
“Commissioner Trumka’s end-run around the law,
and the Commission’s earlier vote, does not make any products
safer. It only stops innovation in the infant-products space which
parents are actively seeking. His actions erode trust in CPSC as an
institution that plays a vital role in researching product safety
and developing safety standards that parents and families can rely
on.”—Kara Rollins, Litigation Counsel, NCLA
“Commissioner Trumka is abusing his authority by
trying unilaterally to get Dreamland’s weighted sleep sacks off the
market. Depriving parents of access to these perfectly safe
products poses its own safety hazard since parents’ sleep
deprivation is tied to higher infant death rates. Trumka’s actions
are not only unlawful, but they make families less safe, not
more so.”—Jenin Younes, Litigation Counsel, NCLA
“Richard Trumka seems to have forgotten that he
is a commissioner—not a commissar. He has no business contacting
retailers on his own to attack products without the support of
agency research. Trumka is a repeat offender abusing his office,
and it is long past time for CPSC to rein him in.”—Mark
Chenoweth, President, NCLA
For more information visit the case page
here.
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights
group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to
protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the
Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other
pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and
federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that
will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
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Ruslan Moldovanov
New Civil Liberties Alliance
202-869-5237
ruslan.moldovanov@ncla.legal