How Trump’s action could expel the work of the EEOC: NPR

When Jocelyn Samuels learned via an e -mail late on the evening of January 27 She was removed from her chair She was shocked at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

She had heard rumors that President Trump would try to expel commissioners from independent agencies, but she didn’t think it would happen to her.

After all, the veteran civil rights lawyer had worked for both republican and democratic administrations. What is more, she had been the choice of Trump to fill a democratic seat on the Bipartisan Commission during his first term.

“I have not hidden my policy views or the way I am going to interpret legal interpretation when I was interviewed by Trump’s White House in 2020,” says Samuels. “I believe that I have carried out my responsibilities with integrity and competence and real attention to the rule of law.”

But now, five years later, she has been told that her “radical” views, including her position that diversity, fairness and inclusion are permitted by law, make her unsuitable to serve.

The face has led Samuels to one conclusion.

“I think it is the perspectives of this administration that have changed and have become considerably more radical,” she says.

Since they returned to the White House three weeks ago, Trump has taken over so much Legal questionable actions To implement his agenda that the removal of Samuels, together with that of former EEOC chairman Charlotte BurrowsDid not fuel the widespread public response that it could have in quieter times.

But people who work in civil rights warn the shootings part of a broad attempt to dismantle the infrastructure for tackling systemic inequalities in America.

An agency that was established to combat discrimination

The Eeoc was Made by the congress 60 years ago to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With the head office in Washington, DC and field offices throughout the country, the mission is to eliminate illegal discrimination in the workplace.

Every year the EEOC investigates tens of thousands of complaints about discrimination, so that mediation is in some cases facilitated and brought to court in other employers.

“The EEOC as an institution plays a crucial role in promoting and justifying the rights of those subject to discrimination – a role that individuals simply cannot make up for by hiring their own lawyers and submitting their own lawsuits,” says Samuels.

Historically, the agency has given priority to protecting vulnerable employees and people against disadvantaged communities.

Samuels fears that the focus will end, because Trump takes his harsh action against diversity, fairness, inclusion and accessibility (Deia) in all corners of the federal government and then.

The Trump government has already stopped the deia-related work throughout the government, has withdrawn an executive order from 1965 aimed at preventing discrimination against work capacity by federal contractors and ordered government websites that are scrubbed of content of “gender orientology”, among other things content . Federal employees have been told Strip pronouns of their e -mail signs.

Acting EEOC chairman Andrea Lucas, who also appointed Trump to the committee in 2020, has already terminated the use of the non-BDIE “X” gender option on forms used for submitting discrimination claims.

And much larger changes are ahead.

“Elections have consequences”

“I think elections have consequences and new administrations have different priorities,” says Samuels. “I think what is going on is an attempt to expel the substantiation of the EEOC policy … and the nature of the work that it can undertake in a way that is completely unprecedented.”

Currently, the EEOC cannot make major policy changes. With two more commissioners, it misses a quorum.

But with empty seats that Trump can fill, the committee is expected to get a republican majority soon. At that time, Samuels expects an unrest.

Lucas has sworn parts of The intimidation of the EEOC who make it clear that transgender people are protected against intimidation based on gender identity.

Samuels regards this guidance as an essential tool for protecting people who have experienced serious treatment at work, “whether it is about mistreatment or invasive questions about the sexual organs of employees, or say that people are not real men when they transmannen are, or call it “it.” “

In the meantime, Lucas argues that the guidance jeopardizes women by ignoring ‘biological realities’.

“The same agency that fought in the 1960s and 70s to ensure that women were entitled to their own toilets, changing rooms, sleeping quarters and other sex-specific workplace facilities and established that it would be due to sex discrimination not To offer such facilities for only women-recharged women by attacking them on sex-based rights in the workplace, “said Lucas In a statement last month. “That must end.”

A decision to withdraw the gender identity part of the guidance can be at odds with the Supreme Court. In 2020, The court ruled“It is impossible to discriminate a person because he is homosexual or transgender without discriminating the individual on the basis of sex.”

A horrifying effect on employers

Many also ensure that the Trump EEOOC will accept a proposal from Project 2025 to put an end to the requirement that employers with 100 or more employees provide the government annual data on the racing, ethnicity, gender and task category of their employees. Without the data, the EEOC may not be able to prove that the recruitment or promotional practices of an employer are discriminatory.

“I am very concerned that the EEOC will no longer be an agency that is committed to protecting and limiting the rights of vulnerable employees, and instead will be a barrier for their ability to be protected against discrimination,” says Samuels.

Even before major policy changes are completed, Samuels expects that many employers will stop all kinds of efforts to tackle barriers to opportunities, even things like mentoring programs that are open to everyone.

“Because the administration has not provided a description of the types of initiatives that it is inside the dei section, employers can be cooled,” she says.

She fears that Trump’s executive orders, including many references to “Illegal dei and deia policy” And a direct call to employers in the private sector to investigate their own practices, some companies can cause them to accidentally violate anti -discrimination laws.

As an example, The federal law requires That employers make accommodation for employees and applicants with disabilities, unless those accommodations would impose unnecessary hardships.

“Together with this Trump dei, the accessibility of this Trump dei, as if they are awake, ideological conditions that have no relationship with legal requirements, I think that employers simply continue the garden path to believe that compliance with their accommodation obligations is discretionary,” she says.

Own battle

After a career fighting on behalf of other people, Samuels now weighs whether she should challenge her own resignation in court.

“I’m going to think very hard about the right next steps,” she says.

Ninety years ago, the Supreme Court ruled That presidents do not have the authority to dismiss commissioners from independent agencies.

Through several shooting work, Trump has opportunities for courts to reconsider that decision.

Gwynne Wilcox, a democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired by Trump the same night as Samuels, has sued TrumpWith reference to language in the National Labor Relations Act that enables the president to only remove board members due to duty destruction or a crime in function.

“We trust that the courts will maintain the long -term protection of the law for the independence of the agency,” said Wilcox Deepak Gupta’s lawyer in a statement.