The Trump administration yesterday sued three Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) board members who refused to leave their offices after President Trump fired them.
On April 28, the White House informed Democratic board members Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman, and Diane Kaplan that their board positions were “terminated effective immediately.” Their departures would have left the board with only two members, both Republicans, but the CPB defied the president and continued with five board members.
The US government’s lawsuit against Ross, Rothman, and Kaplan alleged that they “have been usurping and purporting to exercise unlawfully the office of board member of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting… As recent Supreme Court orders have recognized, the President cannot meaningfully exercise his executive power under Article II of the Constitution without the power to select—and, when necessary, remove—those who hold federal office.”