DOJ Moves to 'Oust' Fired but Lingering CPB Board Members

The Trump administration Department of Justice has filed suit against three former board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) who were fired in late April, but the DOJ claims they are still acting as if they were not.

The suit is filed in the federal court in the District of Columbia, where the defendants sought to have their jobs preserved, but the court ruled against them.

The DOJ raises that issue in its suit to have the three removed from the CPB offices.

"Defendants are defiantly acting as if the Court granted the relief the Court denied — raising the question of why they bothered to seek preliminary relief and consume the resources of the Court and the parties if they were simply going to ignore any adverse ruling."

The Trump administration says the three have continued to act as though they were still legitimate members of the CPB board, "participating in board meetings, voting on resolutions and other business that comes before the board, and presenting themselves to the public as board members."

The DOJ labeled their actions as "manifestly unlawful."

The three have already been fired. The suit seeks to have the federal judge who upheld that decision earlier again verify they've been fired but also allow their removal from maintaining a presence at the CPB offices.

The three board members are identified in the suit as Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman, and Diane Kaplan. They are among a group of Biden appointees to federal positions who are balking at being handed dismissal notices from the Trump administration.

This battle over removing the fired board members happens as Congress is reviewing budget plans that call for cuts of over $1 billion in federal spending for public broadcasting.

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump likely has the authority to fire independent agency board members, endorsing sweeping powers of the presidency. While not a final ruling, the unsigned order said that the Constitution appears to give the president the authority to fire board members "without cause."

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