There are legal constraints in place that are designed to prevent many of the president's recent firings. So why is Trump making the moves anyway?
Why Trump’s personnel purges are likely to end up in court www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— Rick Cooley (@rcooley123.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T21:42:23.901Z
Why Trump’s personnel purges are likely to end up in court
Late last week, Donald Trump fired as many as 17 inspectors general without cause. These government watchdogs are responsible for investigating internal wrongdoing, possible ethical…”
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-personnel-purges-are-likely-end-court-rcna189850
The so-called “midnight massacre” was controversial for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that Trump’s move appears to be at odds with federal law. The New York Times report explained, “The firings defied a law that requires presidents to give Congress 30 days’ advance notice before removing any inspector general, along with reasons for the firing. Just two years ago, Congress strengthened that provision by requiring the notice to include a ‘substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” for the removal.’”
Trump evidently didn’t care about the legal constraints....
As the week progressed, the list of firings grew. The Washington Post reported on the president firing “Democratic members of two independent federal commissions,” which represented “an extraordinary break from decades of legal precedent.”
On Monday night, he dismissed two of the three Democrats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, formerly the chair, the White House confirmed Tuesday. He also fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, an NLRB spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. Trump also removed the EEOC’s general counsel, Karla Gilbride, who oversaw civil actions against employers on a range of issues, including discrimination claims from LGBTQ+ and pregnant workers. And he terminated Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB’s general counsel.
It might be tempting to think a new administration is going to make all kinds of personnel changes, so no one should be too surprised by widespread firings.....
There’s also a larger concern about whether the White House wants to do away with the very idea of independent commissions and boards, centralizing even more power and authority in the Oval Office.
But I'm also struck by the through-line: There are legal constraints in place that are designed to prevent many of these firings. The question is why the president appears indifferent to these limits
There will be some fun lawsuits to watch due to these illegal terminations
= new reply since forum marked as read