Following on the heels of the January 27, 2025 dismissal of National Labor Relations Board Member Gwynne Wilcox and NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, President Trump fired two of the three Democratic Commissioners on the five-seat Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that same day.
The president terminated Charlotte Burrows, who chaired the Commission during the Biden administration, and whose term on the Commission was scheduled to expire on July 1, 2028, and Jocelyn Samuels, the Biden-era vice chair of the Commission, who was confirmed to serve until July 1, 2026. The president also fired EEOC General Counsel Karla Gilbride, who was confirmed during the Biden administration for a four-year term ending in 2027. Both commissioners indicated they are exploring legal options to challenge their terminations.
These firings leave Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, a Republican, and Commissioner Kolpana Kotagal, a Democrat who began service in August 2023 (for a term scheduled to expire in July 2027), as the only sitting members of the Commission. Lucas’s term is scheduled to expire in July of this year, but if she seeks renomination or if another nominee for the position is pending, she may stay on in holdover status for much of 2025. More immediately, these terminations deprive the Commission of a working quorum.
Gilbride’s dismissal was generally expected. In March 2021, then-President Biden terminated the EEOC’s general counsel, who had been appointed by President Trump in his first term. It was widely speculated that Trump would follow precedent and dismiss Gilbride early in his administration. The removal of commissioners was less certain, insofar as no sitting commissioner has been removed by the White House prior to the end of their term in the EEOC’s 60-year history. It does not appear to be completely unexpected, however. On December 31, 2024, the Commission unanimously adopted a resolution providing for the agency to continue normal operations and routine investigations in the event that it lost a quorum.
In the absence of a quorum, the EEOC cannot move forward on any significant policy changes unless and until successors are confirmed to return the Commission to at least three sitting members. It also limits the agency’s ability to commence high-stakes or high-profile litigation, although routine litigation may still be commenced without Commission approval.
Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) will keep readers apprised of relevant developments.
