President Donald Trump has actually moved to fire Democratic members of two independent federal commissions, a remarkable break from years of legal precedent that promises to hand Republicans manage over boards that manage swaths of U.S. employees, employers and labor unions.

On Monday night, he dismissed two of the 3 Democrats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - Jocelyn Samuels and Charlotte Burrows, previously the chair, the White House validated Tuesday. He also fired the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democrat, an NLRB representative validated Tuesday.

All 3 stated they are exploring their legal choices versus the administration - cases that legal scholars state could reach as far as the Supreme Court.

Trump also got rid of the EEOC's basic counsel, Karla Gilbride, who supervise civil actions against companies on a variety of concerns, including discrimination claims from LGBTQ+ and pregnant workers. And he ended Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB's general counsel. Their departures throw into question the status of various actions underway at both companies, consisting of versus billionaire Elon Musk's electrical car company, Tesla.

"These were far-left appointees with radical records of overthrowing enduring labor law, and they have no location as senior appointees in the Trump administration, which was offered a required by the American individuals to reverse the extreme policies they produced," a White House authorities said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration.

In statements released Tuesday, Burrows and Samuels both called their eliminations "unprecedented."

"Removing me from my position before the expiration of my Congressionally directed term is unmatched, violates the law, and represents an essential misconception of the nature of the EEOC as an independent agency - one that is not controlled by a single Cabinet secretary but runs as a multimember body whose varying views are baked into the Commission's style," Samuels wrote.

In dismissing her, she added, the White House critiqued her views on sex discrimination, variety, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, and availability problems. She said the criticism misunderstood "the fundamental concepts of equivalent employment chance."

Burrows composed that her removal "will weaken the efforts of this independent firm to do the essential work of securing staff members from discrimination, supporting companies' compliance efforts, and expanding public awareness and understanding of federal work laws."

Wilcox, the NLRB member, wrote in a statement that she will pursue "all legal avenues to challenge my elimination, which breaks long-standing Supreme Court precedent."

The removal of basic counsels is not without precedent: President Joe Biden fired Trump-appointed basic counsels at the EEOC and NLRB upon going into workplace in 2021. Yet dismissing members of independent commissions represents a dramatic break from Supreme Court precedent dating to 1935, which holds that the president can not remove members of independent agencies such as the EEOC except in cases of disregard of duty, malfeasance or ineffectiveness.

Trump's actions leave both five-member boards without adequate members to conduct business. The boards now have just 2 members; Trump must fill the vacancies and wait for Senate approval.

Legal experts were troubled by Trump's relocation.

There are "concerns that this is the initial step towards erosion of office securities versus discrimination in the workplace," said Kevin Owen, a work lawyer in Maryland concentrating on federal workers.

"This might herald completion of the EEOC as we understand it."

Trump has espoused an extensive view of executive power and campaigned on taking more control over firms that traditionally ran largely independent of the White House, including the EEOC and NLRB. His maneuvers also bring into question whether he will take similar actions at other independent firms.

"I will bring the independent regulative agencies such as the [Federal Communications Commission] and the [Federal Trade Commission] back under presidential authority as the Constitution demands," Trump wrote on his social networks platform, employment Truth Social, in April 2023. "These agencies do not get to end up being a fourth branch of federal government, releasing guidelines and orders all on their own, and that's what they've been doing."

Taking control of the agencies might permit Trump to more aggressively pursue his agenda.

The termination of the 2 commissioners - Samuels and Burrows - permits Trump to replace them with Republicans and offer the five-member commission a conservative majority. One seat was uninhabited before the terminations.

Last week, Trump designated Andrea Lucas, the board's only Republican, as acting chair. With a GOP bulk, Lucas would be able to more freely pursue her concerns, which include "rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination" and "protecting the biological and binary reality of sex." The EEOC has the power to open examinations and pursue civil charges versus employers it alleges have broken federal laws barring workplace discrimination.

Trump's firing of the NLRB's Wilcox imperils long-standing union rights in the United States implemented by the NLRB, legal professionals stated.

"This has the prospective to lead to rulings that either change the method the [labor] board is structured and even limit the board's capability to work going forward," stated Kate Andrias, a teacher at Columbia Law School.

The NLRB - which oversees unionization votes by workers and adjudicates accusations of illegal union busting - has faced a flurry of legal obstacles to its constitutionality, brought in 2015 by SpaceX, Amazon and other high-profile business, pushed by a conservative Supreme Court. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Those cases are slowly overcoming the federal court system. But legal experts say Wilcox's shooting could propel the issue to the high court faster.

"The Trump administration along with the architects of Project 2025 are aiming to do away with the National Labor Relations Act," said Seth Goldstein, a labor lawyer who has represented Amazon and Trader Joe's employees. He referred to the 1935 law that developed the NLRB and modern-day union rights. "They wish to end employee rights and return us to the Gilded Age," he stated.