Trump Moves to Fire Members of EEOC and NLRB, Breaking With Precedent

President Donald Trump has moved to fire Democratic members of 2 independent federal commissions, employment an extraordinary break from decades of legal precedent that assures to hand Republicans manage over boards that supervise swaths of U.S. workers, employers and labor unions.

On Monday night, he dismissed 2 of the three Democrats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, previously the chair, the White House verified Tuesday. He also fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, an NLRB representative confirmed Tuesday.

All 3 said they are exploring their legal alternatives against the administration – cases that legal scholars say might reach as far as the Supreme Court.

Trump also eliminated the EEOC’s basic counsel, Karla Gilbride, who oversaw civil actions against companies on a variety of concerns, consisting of discrimination claims from LGBTQ+ and pregnant workers. And he terminated Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB’s basic counsel. Their departures toss into concern the status of numerous actions underway at both agencies, employment including against billionaire Elon Musk’s electrical automobile business, Tesla.

“These were far-left appointees with radical records of overthrowing long-standing labor law, and they have no location as senior appointees in the Trump administration, which was given a required by the American individuals to reverse the radical policies they produced,” a White House official said, employment speaking on the condition of privacy under guideline set by the administration.

In declarations released Tuesday, Burrows and employment Samuels both called their eliminations “extraordinary.”

“Removing me from my position before the expiration of my Congressionally directed term is extraordinary, breaches the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency – one that is not managed by a single Cabinet secretary however runs as a multimember body whose differing views are baked into the Commission’s design,” Samuels wrote.

In dismissing her, she added, the White House critiqued her views on sex discrimination, variety, equity and addition (DEI) programs, and availability issues. She stated the criticism misinterpreted “the basic principles of equivalent job opportunity.”

Burrows wrote that her elimination “will weaken the efforts of this independent firm to do the crucial work of securing workers from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and broadening public awareness and understanding of federal work laws.”

Wilcox, the NLRB member, wrote in a statement that she will pursue “all legal avenues to challenge my elimination, which breaks long-standing Supreme Court precedent.”

The removal of general counsels is not without precedent: President Joe Biden fired Trump-appointed basic counsels at the EEOC and NLRB upon entering workplace in 2021. Yet dismissing members of independent commissions represents a remarkable break from Supreme Court precedent dating to 1935, which holds that the president can not get rid of members of independent firms such as the EEOC other than in cases of disregard of task, impropriety or ineffectiveness.

Trump’s actions leave both five-member boards without adequate members to perform service. The boards now have only 2 members; Trump needs to fill the jobs and wait for Senate approval.

Legal experts were bothered by Trump’s relocation.

There are “concerns that this is the primary step towards disintegration of office protections against discrimination in the workplace,” stated Kevin Owen, an employment lawyer in Maryland employment concentrating on federal employees.

“This may declare completion of the EEOC as we understand it.”

Trump has upheld an expansive view of executive power and campaigned on taking more control over agencies that traditionally operated largely independent of the White House, consisting of the EEOC and NLRB. His maneuvers likewise call into concern whether he will take comparable actions at other independent agencies.

“I will bring the independent regulatory companies such as the [Federal Communications Commission] and the [Federal Trade Commission] back under presidential authority as the Constitution demands,” Trump composed on his social networks platform, Truth Social, in April 2023. “These companies do not get to become a 4th branch of federal government, releasing guidelines and edicts all on their own, which’s what they have actually been doing.”

Taking control of the agencies might allow Trump to more aggressively pursue his program.

The termination of the two Democratic EEOC commissioners – Samuels and Burrows – permits Trump to change them with Republicans and offer the five-member commission a conservative bulk. One seat was uninhabited before the dismissals.

Last week, Trump selected Andrea Lucas, the board’s only Republican, as acting chair. With a GOP majority, Lucas would be able to more freely pursue her priorities, which consist of “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” and “defending the biological and binary truth of sex.” The EEOC has the power to open examinations and pursue civil charges against employers it declares have violated federal laws disallowing workplace discrimination.

Trump’s firing of the NLRB’s Wilcox threatens enduring union rights in the United States implemented by the NLRB, legal experts said.

“This has the potential to result in rulings that either alter the way the [labor] board is structured or even restrict the board’s ability to function going forward,” said Kate Andrias, a teacher at Columbia Law School.

The NLRB – which oversees unionization votes by workers and adjudicates accusations of unlawful union busting – has dealt with a flurry of legal difficulties to its constitutionality, in 2015 by SpaceX, Amazon and other high-profile business, pushed by a conservative Supreme Court. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Those cases are slowly working through the federal court system. But legal specialists state Wilcox’s firing might propel the concern to the high court more quickly.

“The Trump administration along with the architects of Project 2025 are aiming to do away with the National Labor Relations Act,” stated Seth Goldstein, a labor lawyer who has actually represented Amazon and Trader Joe’s workers. He referred to the 1935 law that developed the NLRB and employment modern-day union rights. “They wish to end employee rights and return us to the Gilded Age,” he said.