
President Donald Trump has possibly illegally fired two Democratic members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency charged with enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws. Since 2020, this has included anti-LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination. Presidents have never fired these commissioners since the agency was created and now the EEOC can’t even do its normal work because it’s understaffed.
According to multiple news outlets, Charlotte A. Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels have both confirmed that they were informed that they had been removed from their posts along with the commission’s general counsel, Karla Gilbride, by the president late Monday night.
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Donald Trump revokes LBJ’s historic Equal Employment Opportunity order
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The firings appear to be the latest move in Trump’s full-scale attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, following a slew of Day 1 executive orders. Prior to the Monday night purge, Trump named Republican EEOC commissioner Andrea Lucas as the agency’s acting chair. Lucas opposes both DEI initiatives and federal civil rights protections for transgender people. In a statement last week, she said that she would prioritize “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” according to the New York Times.
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The removals also leave the EEOC with only two commissioners. Without the required three-member quorum, Samuels noted in a statement that Trump’s move “hobbles the agency’s ability to protect workers from unlawful discrimination.”
According to Reuters, an unnamed White House official described Samuels and Burrows as “far-left appointees with radical records of upending longstanding labor law,” adding that “They have no place as senior appointees in the Trump administration, which was given a mandate by the American people to undo the radical policies they created.” (Notably, Samuels was first appointed to the EEOC by Trump in 2020.)
As Reuters noted, Trump is the first president to ever fire an EEOC commissioner since the agency was formed under the Civil Rights Act in 1965, and the move may run afoul of federal law, which states that EEOC commissioners shall continue to serve their five-year terms “until their successors are appointed and qualified.” Trump as not named replacements for Burrows and Samuels.
In a January 28 statement posted to X, Samuels said that her removal “violates the law, and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency.” She added that she is “considering my legal options.”
According to the Times, Burrows also said in a statement that she has retained a lawyer and would “explore all legal options available to me.”
“Removing me, along with Commissioner Samuels, well before the expiration of our terms is unprecedented and will undermine the efforts of this independent agency to do the important work of protecting employees from discrimination, supporting employers’ compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal employment laws,” Burrows said.
On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) described Trump’s removal of Burrows and Samuels as “an unprecedented and illegal move aimed at upending enforcement of nondiscrimination protections for workers all across the country.”
“This lawless power grab exposes the administration’s true agenda: greenlighting discrimination, including harassment and bias, against all Americans,” HRC president Kelley Robinson said. “With hate crimes surging and state legislatures pushing record numbers of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, the administration is now knee-capping the federal watchdog that stands between millions of workers and unchecked discrimination. The federal courts must reject this blatant abuse of power.”
As members of the EEOC, Samuels and Burrows approved updated federal workplace guidelines to protect transgender workers from anti-trans harassment like misgendering or denial of bathroom access, defining such actions as sex-based discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
In a June 2022 op-ed for LGBTQ Nation, Burrows recognized the leadership of LGBTQ+ workers who stood up to workplace discrimination. “The strength and resilience of these individuals and many more within the LGBTQI+ community have made possible the EEOC’s work to advance employment opportunities for LGBTQI+ workers,” she wrote. “The EEOC commits to continuing the fight for equality and diversity in the workplace.”
Burrows also touted the EEOC’s landing page for guidance and resources on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Discrimination. As of January 29, that page appears to have been removed from eeoc.gov, and the site’s page on Sex-Based Discrimination, which includes guidance on discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, now includes a note saying that it “is being reviewed for compliance with the law and executive orders and will be revised.”
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