GOP Civil Rights Commissioners Look to Oust Democratic Chair (1)

Republicans on a civil rights panel attempted to remove two Democrats from leadership posts Friday, claiming the White House fired them.

Stephen Gilchrist and J. Christian Adams, two of the four Republicans on the US Commission on Civil Rights, sought to hand-deliver a presidential proclamation to remove Chair Rochelle Garza and Vice Chair Victoria Nourse during a public meeting. The two Republicans said Gilchrist had received the proclamation from the White House.

The eight-member board is tasked with studying claims of voting rights violations and discrimination based on race, sex, and other protected groups. Composed of presidential and congressional appointees, the commission is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

The White House has previously tried to demote Garza, who has refused to follow the order without a committee vote.

Gilchrist said the proclamation, which he carried with him in a mail tube, called for a new chair, vice chair, and staff director. Democrats on the panel questioned the document’s authenticity and recessed before it was presented.

Minutes later, an official announced that the meeting had lost a quorum, ending with crucial questions unanswered.

Trump intends to make Republican member Peter Kirsanow chair of the commission and Gilchrist vice chair, a White House official said. Carissa Mulder, a special assistant to Kirsanow, would become staff director, while Garza and Nourse would stay on as commissioners, the official said.

The official added that Trump has “unilateral authority” to replace anyone on the commission because it is an executive agency, echoing an argument that the administration has frequently made to fire leaders of independent agencies without cause. The US Supreme Court is considering a legal challenge involving the president’s termination of former Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter.

Adams contradicted Gilchrist’s earlier remarks in an email to Bloomberg Law, saying that the Friday proclamation concerned only the staff director.

“This is a case of Garza simply ignoring the president’s designation of staff director and not allowing a vote,” Adams said. “I have asked her repeatedly to put it on the agenda before meetings.”