Trump illegally fired surveillance watchdog agency's Democrats, judge rules

Yahoo

21-05-2025

President Donald Trump illegally removed two Democratic members of a federal privacy oversight board, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.
Washington-based U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ruled that Trump's firings of Travis LeBlanc and Ed Felten, two Democratic members on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was unlawful, stating that the board's structure was intended to have a restriction on the president's removal power. As a result, Walton ordered that LeBlanc and Felten remain as board members.
"Such unfettered authority would make the Board and its members beholden to the very authority it is supposed to oversee on behalf of Congress and the American people," Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, said in his ruling. "To hold otherwise would be to bless the President's obvious attempt to exercise power beyond that granted to him by the Constitution and shield the Executive Branch's counterterrorism actions from independent oversight, public scrutiny, and bipartisan congressional insight regarding those actions."
The case could have ramifications beyond the board, extending to the rest of the Trump administration's control of independent federal agencies.
'The Constitution gives President Trump the power to remove personnel who exercise his executive authority. The Trump administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue," White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in response to the order.
LeBlanc and Felten claimed the Trump administration violated 90-year-old Supreme Court precedent that upheld limits passed by Congress on the president's ability to fire independent agency members.
President Donald Trump has targeted DEI as part of various executive orders, and Carr often echoes the president's complaints in his pledges to end any invidious forms of discrimination in the companies he regulates.
Trump fired all Democrats, including its chair, Sharon Bradford Franklin, from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board in January, leaving a single Republican member.
Without at least a three-member quorum, PCLOB can't start new projects or issue official board reports, such as its reviews of the EU-US data privacy framework and government surveillance programs. Walton's order Wednesday means the board will have a quorum again.
The board was created in 2007 as an independent executive branch agency to ensure that government surveillance did not curtail civil liberties and privacy rights in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Although it has lacked a quorum for much of its history, the board has also provided key recommendations that led to the U.S. government ending its bulk phone data collection program and creating guardrails for other surveillance tools.
'We will abide by the court order. We understand the Department of Justice intends to appeal,' Alan Silverleib, a spokesperson for PCLOB, said in a statement.
There are similar lawsuits accusing the Trump administration of illegally firing independent agency members at the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the National Credit Union Administration.
This decision could potentially have an effect on how those cases are decided.
It comes amid an already unclear legal environment around Trump's firings. Last month, Chief Justice John Roberts granted the White House's request to halt lower court rulings that reinstated two members of other boards whom Trump also tried to fire without offering any justification for the dismissals.
The temporary stay Roberts ordered April 9 remains in place more than 6 weeks later with no further action by the court.
The lack of action has led many court-watchers to infer that the high court intends to let Trump's dismissal of those officials and others stand, at least until the court takes up the question of presidential firing powers in greater depth, perhaps in the fall.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.