{"id":17624,"date":"2026-01-12T22:31:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-inaction-stymies-trumps-bid-to-reshape-civil-rights-commission\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:31:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:31:38","slug":"gop-inaction-stymies-trumps-bid-to-reshape-civil-rights-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/gop-inaction-stymies-trumps-bid-to-reshape-civil-rights-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP inaction stymies Trump\u2019s bid to reshape Civil Rights Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Inaction by Republican lawmakers has stymied the Trump administration’s efforts<\/a> to wrest control of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, allowing the panel to slip back into Democratic hands for the time being.<\/p>\n

That could have significant implications for the commission\u2019s ongoing investigation into antisemitism on college campuses \u2014 making it more likely that the probe will scrutinize the Trump administration\u2019s unprecedented<\/a> pressure campaign<\/a> against universities and dismantling of federal civil rights offices.<\/p>\n

The commission lapsed into a 4-3 Democratic majority in December, after Senate Majority Leader John Thune failed to appoint a member to the 8-seat commission after a GOP appointee\u2019s term expired.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Thune told Blue Light News that the senator\u2019s staff is \u201cworking on a number of appointments right now and look forward to filling this slot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until then, the commission\u2019s work will continue under a Democratic majority and Democrat-appointed Chair Rochelle Garza, who has maintained her role despite a purported demotion<\/a> by the White House \u2014 and more recent threats that she would be detained by federal authorities and forcibly removed from her position.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of this is about intimidation and it’s about bullying and … taking over the commission,\u201d she told Blue Light News. \u201cIf we are here to champion civil rights we have to do it above board and we cannot let anybody push us around, it doesn\u2019t matter if you’re the president of the United States, there are rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Blue Light News in April that Trump \u201creserves the right to fire anyone he wants\u201d within the executive branch, shortly after Garza declined to comply<\/a> with the administration\u2019s decision to replace her as chair.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an open seat on the panel after commissioner Gail Heriot\u2019s term expired on Dec. 12. Heriot, an affirmative action critic who is formally listed as an independent, has been appointed by Republicans to multiple terms, most recently in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She stunned commission members and staffers last year by alleging a campaign of threats against Democratic members during an unusually contentious business meeting, according to four people who attended the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive circumstances.<\/p>\n

The alleged threats also include freezing the pay of staffers who work for Democrat appointees and terminating others if their bosses do not accede to the White House\u2019s moves to demote Garza and the Democratic vice chair, Heriot said during the September meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to be able to move full speed ahead on all of this and vote in favor of the President’s\u201d nominees to replace the panel\u2019s leadership, the former commissioner said<\/a>. \u201cBut there is a much deeper problem \u2026 and that is that threats have been made to get the four Democratic Commissioners to vote \u2018yes.\u2019 I cannot be a party to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three other commission staff members familiar with the developments confirmed that employees heard about vague threats to their jobs and to physically remove the Democratic chair. The White House said last spring that it was \u201cde-designating\u201d Garza from her post, and elevating a Republican member instead. But the commission has not put the White House\u2019s directive to a vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no reason to believe that these threats are coming from President Trump himself or from his top advisors \u2026 but it does seem to be coming from somewhere in the administration,\u201d Heriot said at the meeting, adding that she could not offer further details.<\/p>\n

Heriot, whose term expired Dec. 12, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the commission told Blue Light News that its campus antisemitism investigation is ongoing and a final report is expected in September.<\/p>\n

Colleges and universities \u201care cooperating with the investigation\u201d and have sent back some interrogatories and data, the commission said. \u201cRelevant agencies such as the Department of Education, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services, have been in communication with the Commission [and we are] currently awaiting responses and information from these federal agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garza told Blue Light News she would continue to resist the moves to oust her, which she views as unlawful. \u201cI\u2019m not going to let anyone threaten or intimidate me into doing something I know is wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inaction by Republican lawmakers has stymied the Trump administration’s efforts to wrest control of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, allowing the panel to slip back into Democratic hands for the time being. That could have significant implications for the commission\u2019s ongoing investigation into antisemitism on college campuses \u2014 making it more likely that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}