A veteran Washington lobbyist has sued the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and its acting chairman, claiming the agency unlawfully barred him from its facilities and retaliated against him over his work for a client. Edward Krenik filed the suit against Peter Feldman in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging the ban followed a dispute that spilled over into the White House.
According to Reuters, Krenik alleges that CPSC accused him of disruptive behavior and declared him a threat without justification before barring him from entering any agency building. Krenik owns and operates the government affairs firm Northstar EK LLC and has been a registered lobbyist for more than 23 years, according to the same report. He previously worked as an aide to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and most of his current work involves advocating for manufacturers and trade associations before the CPSC, per the lawsuit as described by Reuters.
What the Lawsuit Describes
Per the lawsuit, Krenik urged Feldman to take certain actions on behalf of an unnamed client and told the chairman he was authorized to take the client's concerns directly to the White House. The White House then contacted Feldman after Krenik raised those concerns, and reportedly admonished him, the lawsuit states. In August 2026, CPSC prohibited Krenik from entering any agency building, and a CPSC official accused him in a letter of repeated abusive and disruptive behavior, including attempts to contact staff through improper and unauthorized channels, the report notes. Krenik maintains he had no legal obligation to use any specific communication method when contacting a government official.
Krenik is represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, whose attorney Kara Rollins said the right to petition keeps government answerable to the governed, and it means nothing if officials can banish those with whom they disagree, per the same account. CPSC told Reuters it had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. Attorneys Kara Rollins and Christian Clase represent Krenik in the case, which lists no appearances yet for the defendants.
Leaning on Recent Court Wins
Krenik's legal team is leaning on recent judicial precedent to bolster his First and Fifth Amendment claims. The suit cites court rulings from 2025 that blocked White House orders restricting four law firms' ability to interact with federal agencies, according to Reuters' reporting on the filing. Those cases involved Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey, which won permanent federal injunctions against executive branch orders that penalized their client advocacy, according to Best Law Firms; those district court injunctions remained intact while under appeal in the D.C. Circuit as of October 2026.
Krenik also cited a federal judge's order requiring the White House to restore access to CNN and other media outlets, per Reuters. That ruling came from U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who on October 13 extended an injunction ordering the White House to restore credentials for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, finding that revoking press access over critical reporting likely violated First Amendment free speech and Fifth Amendment due process rights, according to The Ticker. The White House had revoked those credentials on September 18, 2026, claiming agency access was a privilege rather than a constitutional right, the outlet reported.
A CPSC Reshaped by Removals
Krenik's ban arrived amid a broader shakeup at the agency he has lobbied for decades. Feldman assumed the role of CPSC Acting Chairman in January 2025, after former Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric stepped down following the presidential transition, according to CPSC.gov. Feldman was originally nominated to the CPSC by President Trump in 2018 and reconfirmed for a term lasting through October 2026.
Following the May 2025 removals of three CPSC commissioners, the agency operated with Feldman as its sole commissioner, which prompted Senate committee hearings in June 2026 to consider nominees to restore a statutory quorum, according to Sidley Austin LLP. Feldman and a former colleague delegated agency authorities in August 2025 to keep operations running without a multi-member quorum, the firm noted. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld those May 2025 firings in September, ruling that constitutional executive authority permits the at-will removal of agency leadership, a decision that relied on the Supreme Court's June 2026 ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, which overturned 1935 removal restrictions, according to Bicycle Retailer and Industry News.
Krenik's Long History Before the Agency
Before launching Northstar EK LLC, Krenik served as Associate Administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2001 to 2003, and spent seven years as a Capitol Hill legislative director for Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen between 1994 and 2001, according to Quiver Quantitative. He later spent years as a Senior Principal at Bracewell LLP, where he regularly represented trade groups and outdoor power equipment manufacturers in meetings before the CPSC, including groups like the Window Covering Manufacturers Association and the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, per the same source.
Under federal lobbying disclosures filed in 2026, Northstar EK LLC has represented clients including Polaris Inc. and Little Giant Ladder Systems before federal agencies, Quiver Quantitative reported. The firm is registered in Alexandria, Virginia. CPSC itself oversees safety compliance across thousands of consumer product categories with a workforce of roughly 520 employees and an annual budget of approximately $126 million, according to a past ProPublica report on the agency's scale.
The case remains in its early stages, with no appearances yet entered for the defendants. The outcome could test how much discretion federal agency heads have to bar individual advocates from public buildings on misconduct grounds, versus whether such bans amount to unconstitutional retaliation against protected petitioning activity.
