Trump Relocate To Fire Members of EEOC and NLRB, Braking With Precedent

President Donald Trump has transferred to fire Democratic members of 2 independent federal commissions, an amazing break from decades of legal precedent that promises to hand Republicans control over boards that oversee swaths of U.S. employees, companies and labor unions.

On Monday night, he dismissed two of the three Democrats on the Equal Job Opportunity Commission – Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, formerly the chair, the White House verified Tuesday. He likewise fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, an NLRB spokesperson verified Tuesday.

All three said they are exploring their legal choices against the administration – cases that legal scholars say could reach as far as the Supreme Court.

Trump also removed the EEOC’s basic counsel, Karla Gilbride, who oversaw civil actions versus employers on a variety of concerns, including discrimination claims from LGBTQ+ and pregnant workers. And he terminated Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB’s general counsel. Their departures throw into concern the status of various actions underway at both firms, including against billionaire Elon Musk’s electrical car business, Tesla.

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

In declarations issued Tuesday, Burrows and Samuels both called their removals “unmatched.”

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

In dismissing her, she included, the White House critiqued her views on sex discrimination, diversity, equity and addition (DEI) programs, and accessibility concerns. She said the criticism misunderstood “the standard principles of equal job opportunity.”

Burrows wrote that her removal “will undermine the efforts of this independent company to do the essential work of securing workers from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws.”

Wilcox, the NLRB member, wrote in a declaration that she will pursue “all legal opportunities to challenge my removal, which violates enduring Supreme Court precedent.”

The elimination of general counsels is not without precedent: employment President Joe Biden fired Trump-appointed basic counsels at the EEOC and NLRB upon going into office 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 remove members of independent firms such as the EEOC other than in cases of neglect of duty, employment malfeasance or ineffectiveness.

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

Legal specialists were bothered by Trump’s relocation.

There are “concerns that this is the very first step towards erosion of workplace defenses versus discrimination in the office,” said Kevin Owen, an employment attorney in Maryland concentrating on federal staff members.

“This might herald the end of the EEOC as we understand it.”

Trump has upheld an expansive view of executive power and campaigned on seizing more control over companies that typically operated mostly independent of the White House, consisting of the EEOC and NLRB. His maneuvers likewise cast doubt on whether he will take similar actions at other independent firms.

“I will bring the independent regulative companies such as the [Federal Communications Commission] and the [Federal Trade Commission] back under presidential authority as the Constitution needs,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, employment in April 2023. “These agencies do not get to end up being a fourth branch of federal government, providing rules and orders all by themselves, and that’s what they have actually been doing.”

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

The termination of the 2 Democratic EEOC commissioners – Samuels and Burrows – allows Trump to replace them with Republicans and give the five-member commission a conservative bulk. One seat was vacant before the terminations.

Last week, Trump appointed Andrea Lucas, the board’s only Republican, as acting chair. With a GOP majority, Lucas would be able to more easily pursue her priorities, which include “rooting out illegal DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” and “protecting the biological and binary truth of sex.” The EEOC has the power to open investigations and pursue civil against employers it alleges have actually violated federal laws barring workplace discrimination.

Trump’s shooting of the NLRB’s Wilcox endangers long-standing union rights in the United States implemented by the NLRB, legal experts stated.

“This has the prospective to result in judgments that either change the way the [labor] board is structured or perhaps limit the board’s capability to operate going forward,” stated Kate Andrias, a teacher at Columbia Law School.

The NLRB – which supervises unionization votes by workers and adjudicates accusations of illegal union busting – has dealt with a flurry of legal challenges to its constitutionality, employment brought last year by SpaceX, Amazon and other prominent business, pushed by a conservative Supreme Court. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Those cases are gradually working through the federal court system. But legal experts say Wilcox’s firing could move the issue to the high court faster.

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