Dive Brief:
- Former U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Trump administration alleging that the president illegally terminated her, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Samuels v. Trump, et. al.).
- Samuels, along with fellow former Democratic Commissioner Charlotte Burrows and General Counsel Karla Gilbride, was fired by President Donald Trump days after he took office in January. Samuels is being represented by left-leaning legal organization Democracy Forward and Katz Banks Kumin LLP, a law firm that also has announced plans to represent Burrows, who has not yet filed a lawsuit against the administration.
- The lawsuit will likely serve as another case to test a 90-year-old Supreme Court decision, Humphrey's Executor v. United States. An overturning of that decision could expand the president's authority to control the executive branch.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit is the first to be filed against President Trump and EEOC over the unprecedented firings. EEOC currently is without a quorum, with only two commissioners — Acting Chair Republican Andrea Lucas and Democrat Kalpana Kotagal — and is unable to make rules or issue formal guidance.
In firing Samuels, Trump “undermined the EEOC’s historic independence and interfered with its statutorily mandated duties to protect workers from discrimination, at a time when workers around the country are particularly vulnerable to discrimination,” per the lawsuit. EEOC said it does not comment on litigation.
In the lawsuit, Samuels argued that Congress insulated EEOC from at-will removal by presidents through both its structure and its functions and, as an independent agency, EEOC members have removal protections.
Samuels was first nominated to EEOC by Trump in 2020 and was renominated by President Joe Biden in 2021, with a term set to end July 1, 2026.
“This abrupt and unlawful termination before my term’s completion not only violates federal law, but fundamentally eviscerates the EEOC’s independent structure,” Samuels said in a news release. “Congress deliberately designed the Commission as a multi-member body with diverse perspectives and fixed, staggered terms precisely to create continuity over time, facilitate consensus across the political spectrum, and insulate the Commission from political interference.”
Samuels said the president’s decision to remove her “undermin[es] the Commission’s ability to fully protect American workers from discrimination and uphold their civil rights.”
While the first by a former EEOC leader, the lawsuit is not the only one against the administration by ousted officials. Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired by Trump before her term expired, and Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, both also have lawsuits making their way through the court system.
As in Samuels’ case, Wilcox and Harris challenged the president’s authority to remove federal agency leaders. The Trump administration has questioned the constitutionality of Humphrey’s Executor, which reaffirmed Congress’ power to create independent boards and commissions and denied the president the ability to remove members of those agencies at will.
In February, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris sent a letter to Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, announcing the administration’s plans to challenge the Humphrey’s Executor ruling. The administration moved forward with that plan Wednesday, submitting the Wilcox and Harris cases to the U.S. Supreme Court in an emergency filing.
“As stated in the civil complaint filed today, removing Commissioner Samuels without cause from an independent, multi-member agency like the EEOC is illegal, plain and simple, which is why it has never been done in the agency’s 61-year history. This is just one more example of President Trump’s partisan effort to weaken our federal government and the constitutional foundation of this country,” Lisa Banks of Katz Banks Kumin LLP said in the news release.
