It's likely an incredible over simplification but to my mind any litigation over this should be reduced to two rhetorical questions: 1) Was the department created under the authority of the Executive branch? 2) Who is in charge of that branch? Trying to argue that these departments are "independent" of the office that created them is a de facto attempt to bypass the constitution to create a fourth branch of government. I wouldn't go so far as to call it treasonous but I might be persuaded to that position. -- Edit: stupid autocorrect.