Two former members of an independent civil liberties watchdog agency have filed a lawsuit against the government, seeking a court ruling to declare their terminations illegal and to reinstate them to their previous positions. The lawsuit follows a series of legal actions stemming from President Trump's dismissals of officials, which critics argue undermine the federal government's structure.
The plaintiffs, Travis LeBlanc and Edward W. Felten, were among three members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board removed by President Trump on January 27. A third member, Sharon Bradford Franklin, was also dismissed but did not join the lawsuit as she was scheduled to leave two days later. Following these removals, the five-member board was left with only one member, Beth Williams, who was appointed by Republicans, effectively paralyzing the agency's operations.
In the early weeks of his second term, President Trump has engaged in multiple firings, raising concerns about potential violations of statutes that limit presidential authority to remove certain officials. Many of these dismissals have resulted in lawsuits, which may serve as test cases regarding the extent of presidential power and the constitutionality of existing laws.
While some lawsuits focus on explicit statutory limits preventing the president from firing specific officials without cause, the current case presents a more complex challenge. The law governing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board does not explicitly state that board members can only be removed for cause, despite the board being classified as an independent agency.
Historically, there has been an understanding that officials of independent agencies are protected from arbitrary removal. For instance, in a 2010 Supreme Court case regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission, the court assumed an implicit protection existed, even though it was not explicitly stated in the law.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was established as an independent agency following the September 11 attacks, tasked with investigating national security activities that may infringe on individual rights, such as surveillance and the use of terrorism watch lists. The board is composed of five members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, serving six-year terms with the possibility of extension if no successor is confirmed.
The lawsuit argues that the changes made to the statute governing the board should be interpreted as prohibiting arbitrary firings, emphasizing that allowing such removals would contradict the statute's intended meaning and undermine the independence that Congress sought to establish.