If you thought the circus at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights couldn’t get more absurd, the Commission’s April 24 business meeting proved otherwise, with Democrats claiming that a document from the White House signed by President Donald Trump was a possible forgery. All in order to defy the president, defy the law, and keep control of this federal Commission.
For months, the Commission has been locked in a bitter standoff after the president designated three new officials to lead the agency, as he is authorized to do under the law governing the Commission, 42 U.S.C. § 1975. Despite the president’s official designations, including that of Commissioner Peter Kirsanow as the new chair, Rochelle Garza — a Biden appointee — has refused to relinquish the gavel as the chair.
Under federal law, the president’s selections of Kirsanow and a new vice chair and staff director cannot take effect unless a majority of the commissioners concur. That concurrence requires a vote.
Garza, a DEI activist who runs the Texas Civil Rights Project, an open-borders advocacy organization, has — with the collaboration of partisan career civil service staff at the Commission — refused to allow that vote.
The Commission on Civil Rights is structured to be a bipartisan, eight-member commission, prohibiting a majority of either Republican or Democratic appointees. Its design is intended to encourage cooperation across party lines. But in the current environment, it has produced the opposite: paralysis.
Republican commissioners have made it clear they will not proceed with ordinary business until the Commission acts on the president’s new appointments as it is required to do. Meanwhile, Garza and her disreputable allies continue to block any mechanism for resolution. At the April 24 meeting, this paralysis gave way to something closer to farce and an example of the corrupt behavior that has become a hallmark of Garza and her minions.
Garza has refused to add the presidential designations to the agenda, so after she opened the meeting, Commissioner J. Christian Adams (R) moved to add President Trump’s designation of Carissa Mulder as staff director to the agenda. Anticipating what was coming, Adams added: “And before you rule me out of order, Madame Chair, Commissioner Gilchrist is going to hand you right now a presidential proclamation — hand-delivering to you — that he received at the White House, designating Carissa Mulder as the staff director.”
Commissioner Stephen Gilchrist (R) then handed Garza the signed presidential proclamation.
For months, Garza has insisted that the Commission cannot act without written notice from the White House. Now, with a formal document physically placed in her hands, she ruled the motion out of order. Then she claimed the law requires a “written request from the president seeking a concurrence of the majority of the Commission,” and claimed that, in prior administrations, such requests were formally transmitted through the Presidential Personnel Office. She further asserted that even if such a document existed, the Commission had a “48-hour rule” requiring time to review it—though she was unable to respond when Adams asked her to identify the source of that rule.
Commissioner Mondaire Jones (D) then actually questioned the authenticity of the document, claiming that the commission couldn’t rely on “a purported document from the White House” that hadn’t been delivered “to the full Commission directly.” Of course, Gilchrist was delivering the document directly to the full Commission. Rather than resolve the issue then and there, Garza moved to recess the meeting so that the document could be reviewed.
She and her fellow Democrats proceeded to leave the room, and they never returned because they wanted to prevent the Commission from acting on the president’s lawful designations. As noted, under federal law, the president designates the chair, vice chair, and staff director, subject to concurrence by a majority of commissioners. But that concurrence can’t happen if a vote is never allowed. By refusing to permit that vote — after receiving formal notice — Garza believes she can retain her chairmanship and effectively freeze the Commission in place. What a sham!
The Commission was created to investigate and report on civil rights issues of national importance. While it lacks enforcement power, it exerts significant influence through its reports and public pronouncements. That makes control over its leadership consequential—and explains the lengths to which Garza is willing to go to retain it.
Trump de-designated Garza as chair in March of 2025. Yet for over a year, she has blocked a vote on her presidentially-appointed successor. The governing statute permits removal of a commissioner — like Garza — for “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.” It is clear that the standard has been met. Garza has not only blocked votes necessary for the Commission to function, but has also previously concealed bipartisan requests from Congress that the Commission investigate antisemitism on college campuses.
Failing to transmit or act on such requests, while simultaneously preventing the Commission from exercising its core functions, is difficult to characterize as anything other than malfeasance and neglect of duty.
Garza’s pattern of obstruction over the leadership of the Commission — compounded by her concealment of a congressional request to investigate campus antisemitism — meets the standard for malfeasance and neglect of duty. The president should act immediately to remove her from the Commission for cause.
Until he does, the circus will go on.
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