President Donald Trump has fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies
ARLINGTON, Va. — President Donald Trump fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency that enforces civil rights law in the workplace, an unprecedented move aimed at implementing his crackdown on certain diversity and gender rights policies.
The two commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, confirmed in statements Tuesday that they were fired late Monday night. Both said they were exploring options to challenge their dismissals, calling their removal before the expiration of their five-year terms an unprecedented decision that undermines the agency's independence.
In a similar move, National Labor Relations Board member Gynne A. Wilcox and General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo were also fired late last night, the agency confirmed. Wilcox was the first Black woman to serve on the Board since its inception in 1935, according to the NLRB website.
The EEOC was created by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a bipartisan five-member panel to protect workers from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, disability and other protected characteristics. The U.S. president appoints the commissioners and the Senate confirms them, but their terms are staggered and are meant to overlap presidential terms to help ensure the agency's independence.
The two firings leave the agency with one Republican commissioner, Andrea Lucas, who Trump appointed acting EEOC chair last week, one Democratic
Read more on abcnews.go.com