By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump in an unprecedented move likely to spur legal challenges has fired at least two Democratic members of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces laws banning workplace discrimination.
Trump, a Republican, removed EEOC Commissioners Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows from their posts late on Monday, Samuels said. Trump also fired the agency’s general counsel, Karla Gilbride.
Firing Samuels and Burrows leaves the five-member commission without a quorum of three commissioners, blocking the remaining members from adopting rules and legal guidance, directing staff to take certain actions, and ruling in discrimination cases brought by federal employees.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Chris Reese)
