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A former Democratic appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) who was fired by President Trump last year has dropped a lawsuit challenging her removal in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that strengthened the president’s firing power.
Jocelyn Samuels was one of two Democratic commissioners sacked from the agency in the early days of Trump’s second term as part of an initial crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Samuels said in a statement on Monday that she has moved to voluntarily dismiss her lawsuit after the Supreme Court held in a 6-3 decision that the president can fire the heads of most independent agencies at will. The decision upended a 91-year-old precedent that had historically insulated those bodies from political interference.
“I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court’s legal analysis in Trump v. Slaughter, which overturned an almost century-old precedent and undermined Congress’s authority to limit the President’s removal power over commissioners of independent agencies,” she said.
“The Court’s opinion, however, leaves me without a viable path forward to continue contesting my termination,” Samuels added. “I believe it to be a poor use of legal and judicial resources to pursue this lawsuit when there are so many other critical legal challenges pending to unlawful actions taken by this Administration.”
Samuels claimed in court filings last spring that Trump did not have the authority to terminate her without cause, arguing Congress intended the body as an “independent commission of experts, not as a vehicle for any president’s political agenda.”
The EEOC was created under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws in the workplace, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages and benefits.
Its five-member commission must consist of no more than three individuals from the same political party, according to the law. Commissioners’ five-year terms are staggered so that the president can appoint a new member each year, according to the law.
The commission is currently led by Andrea Lucas, a Republican who was formally sworn in as chair by Justice Clarence Thomas last month. There is one other Republican and one Democrat on the commission, with two additional vacancies.
Trump has made dismantling DEI programs a core focus of his second administration, issuing several executive orders within the first weeks of his second term to eliminate diversity practices and initiatives from federal agencies, the military and other federally funded institutions, such as the Smithsonian Institution and National Park sites.
Lucas hailed the Supreme Court ruling in a post on LinkedIn last week, writing that it “reaffirms the federal government and EEOC’s decades-long position that EEOC is an executive branch agency and reinforces the responsibilities entrusted to us.”
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