Back in April, Donald Trump fired three Democratic members of the board at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a move similar to his efforts to oust Democrats from the Federal Trade Commission and the Kennedy Center, among others. The board members—Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman, and Diane Kaplan— simply never left. Now, the Trump administration is suing to remove them from their seats.
Trump gave notice of the attempted firings on April 28, which led to the CPB and its would-be unemployed board members suing the administration. In the eyes of the organization, the CPB is not a federal agency in the way the FTC or FCC is. Instead, it is a private corporation and, it argued, its board members “cannot be affected, controlled, or disturbed by the actions of the government.” Additionally, the CPB added rules to its bylaws that prevent its board members from being removed and ousting any Trump-appointed member whom they do not want.
Unfortunately, it seems the CPB adopted that rule after Trump issued the firing notices. And herein lies the complications around this case. A judge rejected the CPB’s request for an injunction to prevent the firings, but said the organization has legal grounds for rejecting the firings based on corporate law. The CPB took that as a win and said the three fired board members would stay in their seats.
Shockingly, the Trump administration has a different view. In its lawsuit, the Department of Justice argues that the three board members “have been usurping and purporting to exercise unlawfully the office of board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting” and accuses them of continuing to operate in office “despite their removal and subsequent failure to obtain legal relief protecting their old positions.” They are seeking the removal of the board members, as well as trying to claw back salary that they’ve taken during this purgatory period where they live in limbo of being fired and not fired.
Notably, the DOJ points to a recent Supreme Court ruling as part of its argument that found the President has the power to remove agency heads without cause. The controversial ruling, which was issued in an unsigned order from the court, stemmed from Trump’s removal of the heads of the National Labor Relations Board and the Merits Systems Protection Board. Both argued that they could not be fired without good cause under federal law. And that was the case…until now.
The suit may be the first time the Supreme Court’s ruling is tested. For now, Big Bird’s bosses remain in place—though if Congressional Republicans have their way, they won’t have much to oversee once NPR and PBS get defunded.
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