Corporate Counsel Daily, Former EEOC Commissioner Samuels sues over removal, (Apr 9, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

In “illegally” removing her, she argues, Trump “undermined the EEOC’s historic independence and interfered with its statutorily mandated duties to protect workers from discrimination, at a time when workers around the country are particularly vulnerable to discrimination.”

EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels, who alleges she was illegally removed from her position by President Trump on January 27, 2025, without cause, has filed a lawsuit against Trump, the EEOC, and Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, alleging that the President’s actions were ultra vires. Samuels was nominated by Trump in 2020 and confirmed and then renominated in 2021. Her term is not set to expire until July 2026.

First time in agency’s history. She alleges that Congress has not granted the president authority to remove EEOC commissioners at will and that when Trump directed the EEOC to remove her in January, he lacked cause to do so. “The removal of Commissioner Samuels,” the complaint states, “along with the removal of fellow Democratic Commissioner Charlotte Burrows on the same day, constitutes the first time in the EEOC’s almost 61-year history that a president has sought to remove a member of the Commission prior to the expiration of their term.”

Undermines and interferes. In “illegally” removing her, Samuels alleges, Trump has “undermined the EEOC’s historic independence and interfered with its statutorily mandated duties to protect workers from discrimination, at a time when workers around the country are particularly vulnerable to discrimination.”

“Trump’s illegal removal of Commissioner Samuels,” the complaint explains, “as carried out by Defendants EEOC and Lucas, has significant and damaging consequences for the work of the Commission, the enforcement of the nation’s anti-discrimination laws, and the rights and interests of both workers and employers. While the President may accept these results, his actions to incapacitate the EEOC are contrary to the rule of law and harmful to the American workforce.”

Samuels seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

The case is No. 1:25-cv-01069.

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