Trump administration says EEOC firing was legal, moves to nix lawsuit

By Daniel Wiessner

June 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday asked a federal judge to toss out former Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels' lawsuit claiming her unprecedented removal by President Donald Trump was illegal.

The EEOC in a motion filed in Washington, D.C., federal court argued that the president has broad authority to fire officials who enforce federal laws, including EEOC commissioners, and that Samuels' policy disagreements with Trump illustrate the need for him to have those powers.

The EEOC was designed to be independent from the White House, and before Trump no president had ever removed a commissioner from office.

Days before she was fired in January, Samuels publicly criticized executive orders from Trump rolling back legal protections for transgender people and gutting an anti-discrimination watchdog within the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The fact that [Samuels] acknowledges that she would actively obstruct and undermine the President from executing the laws in accordance with his Administration’s policies underscores the core constitutional flaws with her claims," the agency said in the filing.

Samuels and her lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Samuels is represented by Democracy Forward, a coalition of groups that has challenged a number of Trump administration polices, and Washington law firm Katz Banks Kumin.

Trump in January also fired Charlotte Burrows, who chaired the five-member EEOC during the Biden administration, along with Democratic members of a number of other agencies and boards. The firings left the EEOC without a quorum of at least three members that can adopt rules and legal guidance.

The EEOC cannot have more than three members from one party. Samuels was nominated to the EEOC by Trump in 2020 to fill a Democratic seat.

Burrows has not sued but several other officials have, and a D.C.-based federal appeals court is expected to rule soon on whether the removal of members of two labor boards was illegal. The decision could set important precedent on the president's power to fire officials at a range of multi-member agencies such as the Federal Reserve and may tee up review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In most of those cases, federal law explicitly shielded the officials from being removed without cause, such as malfeasance or neglect of duty.

But Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which created the EEOC and is the primary law enforced by the agency, says only that commissioners "shall continue to serve until their successors are appointed and qualified."

Samuels in her April lawsuit says that means commissioners must serve their full five-year terms, regardless of whether they disagree with the president on policy. She claims that by mandating bipartisan membership, Congress deliberately structured the EEOC to accommodate policy differences.

But the Trump administration in Monday's filing said the U.S. Constitution vests the president with the sole authority to ensure that federal laws like Title VII are faithfully executed. And Trump cannot do that if he is unable to remove officials like Samuels who disagree with his agenda, administration lawyers wrote.

"Plaintiff’s view is that when it comes to execution of federal employment discrimination laws, 'the buck' does not stop with the President; rather, the buck stops somewhere else, with the commissioners of the EEOC," they said.

The case is Samuels v. Trump, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 1:25-cv-01069.

For Samuels: Lisa Banks of Katz Banks Kumin; Jon Greenbaum of Justice Legal Strategies; Elena Goldstein and Victoria Nugent of Democracy Forward

For the defendants: Jeremy Newman of the U.S. Department of Justice

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