In the wake of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented decision to terminate two Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) commissioners, multiple EEOC offices have informed MBJ attorneys that their respective offices are postposing scheduled mediations.
Lat week, Charlotte A. Burrows, a Democrat-appointed Commissioner, announced that she and fellow Democratic Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels were fired by President Trump. President Trump’s removal of the commissioners marks the first time a president has removed an EEOC commissioner prior to the conclusion of their five-year term without cause. Pursuant to federal law, the EEOC consists of five commissioners appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate prior to serving five-year terms. Federal law also requires that no more than three members of the EEOC be part of the same political party.
President’s Trump’s removal of the two commissioners leaves the EEOC with just two Commissioners, Acting Chair Andrea R. Lucas, a Republican, and Kalpana Kotagal, a Democrat. Without a quorum, the EEOC is unable to make rules or issue guidance concerning the statutes it enforces, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. However, it was unclear how the lack of a quorum would affect the EEOC’s day-to-day operations, such as conducting investigations, mediating and conciliating cases, and pursuing lawsuits.
The EEOC offices’ announcements that they are postponing mediations signals that President Trump’s decision to terminate the two commissioners, leaving the EEOC without a quorum, could serve to stall much of the EEOC’s day-to-day operations until a quorum is restored. Once restored, the EEOC is expected to focus on new priorities outlined by Acting Chair Lucas, such as “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination; protecting American workers from Anti-American national origin discrimination; defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single-sex spaces; [and] protecting workers from religious bias and harassment,” among other “areas that have been historically under-enforced by the agency.”
Meanwhile, a similar story is also unfolding with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), as President Trumped removed Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox, leaving the NLRB without a quorum required to hear and decide cases. This is a developing story, and MBJ will provide updates as they become available.
