1 week Ago By Politico
Donald Trump is trying to use a historic federal civil rights commission to advance his agenda on issues like alleged non-citizen voting, antisemitism on college campuses and transgender women in sports. It would be a dramatic shift for the U.S.
Commission on Civil Rights, which was created nearly 70 years ago to investigate discrimination and guide the development and enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws. Its work was instrumental to the formation of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. To wrest control of the eight-member bipartisan commission, Trump is trying to replace its chair, a Democrat, with a hand-picked Republican: an employment lawyer and conservative commentator named Peter Kirsanow.
Kirsanow is an outspoken critic of affirmative action and so-called DEI measures , and he has championed a range of other conservative culture war issues . In March, commission officials received a two-sentence email saying the White House was “de-designating” the current chair, Rochelle Garza, from her post, and elevating Kirsanow instead. But Garza says Trump’s move is illegal.
She says she’s not stepping down unless a majority of her colleagues vote to replace her. “This is a way of trying to circumvent our authorizing statute, it’s very clear,” Garza said. “They've been relentlessly dismantling every single civil rights agency in the federal government, and this could be the last one standing.
” She added that she is “prepared to challenge any attempt to illegally remove me as chairwoman." The commission did not provide a clear answer to POLITICO’s question about who is the current chair. In terms of “an official stance on this matter, there are varying viewpoints, but the Commission itself does not have a position,” the commission replied.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s move. “President Trump is the chief executive of the executive branch and reserves the right to fire anyone he wants,” she said. Garza, a civil rights and immigration lawyer from Texas, is in the second year of what is supposed to be a six-year term as chair.
Under her tenure, the commission has investigated the civil rights implications of facial recognition technology and how language barriers limit access to government services. Despite Leavitt’s statement, Trump has not tried to fire Garza outright. He instead is trying to downgrade her to a regular commissioner role and promote Kirsanow into the chair slot — which comes with outsize power to control the commission’s agenda and work.
Kirsanow was first appointed to the commission by President George W. Bush and has served four consecutive six-year terms. He has long argued that the central civil rights issues of today revolve around illegal immigration , non-citizen voting and reverse discrimination , or alleged discrimination against white people.
He backed the first Trump administration’s failed efforts to add a citizenship question to the Census. More recently, Kirsanow has opposed recognizing gender identity discrimination, and supported law enforcement efforts against pro-Palestinian protesters. His elevation would give Trump control of an authoritative body whose work can add legitimacy to his administration’s assault on the history and civil rights of minority communities.
Kirsanow did not respond to a request for comment. The deputy director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, Trent Morse, sent the “de-designation” letter on March 20. It did not state reasons for Garza’s demotion.
The federal law governing the commission authorizes the president to designate a chair “with the concurrence of a majority of the Commission’s members.” Their six-year terms do not expire when a new president is inaugurated, and under the law they can be fired “only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” Trump, however, is currently urging the Supreme Court to strike down similar statutory restrictions on the president’s ability to remove the heads of independent agencies.
Garza has not relinquished her seat, and the eight-member commission, which is split evenly along party lines, hasn’t put the “de-designation” directive to a vote. It remains unclear if, or when, the commission might do so. Its next business meeting is Friday.
Trump did not attempt to replace the chair during his first term, when Catherine Lhamon, an Obama appointee, helmed the commission. Garza said in an interview that the typical process for installing a new chair involves a formal letter from the White House once the current seat-holder’s term expires — and also requesting agreement from a majority of commissioners. “Our statute doesn’t indicate anything about ‘de-designation,’” she said.
Congress created the civil rights commission in 1957 to investigate discrimination and recommend improvements to civil rights enforcement. It has advisory committees in each state and submits annual reports to the president and Congress. Those reports can help inform legislation.
Perhaps most importantly to Trump, the chair has final say over the commission’s power to subpoena witnesses. At least one Republican member, J. Christian Adams, a former member of Trump’s 2017 voter fraud commission, has proposed using subpoenas to compel testimony from university leaders whom conservatives have accused of tolerating antisemitism.
The chair also has primary authority to call or cancel meetings, establish the agenda for those meetings and decide what research or other materials can be entered into the record. And the chair can censure or exclude people from proceedings. The commission’s priorities in recent years have swung significantly with changes in presidential administrations and its leadership.
Still, Trump’s move to oust the chair is the latest escalation in his administration’s effort to transform the federal and public understanding of whose rights need protection. “This could be incredibly detrimental to the future of civil rights in the country,” Garza said. The attempt to wrest control of the commission fits with the administration’s broad push to dismantle key civil rights institutions and enforcers.
Trump appointed conservative attorney and GOP official Harmeet Dhillon to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Dhillon is likely to use its powers to prosecute left-leaning groups, challenge social media companies for alleged censorship of conservatives, and target universities for alleged anti-white and anti-Jewish discrimination. Trump has also fired two Democrats from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which historically has enforced laws against workplace bias.
Trump is expected to push the commission to aid his crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion programs..
