WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has filed a lawsuit against the President of the United States and other Trump Administration officials over electronic communication that sought the termination of a trio of CPB board members.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday (4/29) in D.C. Federal District Court. In it, CPB noted that board members Laura G. Ross, Diane Kaplan and Tom Rothman received termination notices via e-mail on Monday from the deputy director of presidential personnel for the executive office of the president.
Ross, who is a Vice Chair, is a retired attorney with a term expiring in 2028. Rothman, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s motion pictures group, was nominated by President Biden in August 2021. Kaplan, who ran Alaska Public Radio Network for 11 years, was appointed to the CPB Board of Directors by Biden and confirmed by the Senate in December 2022. Their terms expire in 2026.
It is the CPB’s argument and those of the three board members that the electronic communication has no legal effect and, as such, requests a Temporary Restraining Order. A 4pm Eastern court session with both plaintiff and defendant legal counsel present has been scheduled for Tuesday.
Does President Trump have authority over CPB, officially a nonprofit organization? They say no.
“When Congress created the CPB, it stated clearly that the CPB is not ‘an agency or establishment of the United States Government,’” CPB said in the court filings, as reported by Current. “This alone demonstrates that the CPB is not an executive agency over which the President may exert plenary Article II powers. But Congress didn’t stop there—it also explicitly commanded that the CPB is to be completely free from government control.”
The president can nominate board members, with advice and consent from the Senate. However, removing them is a whole other matter. In the CPB’s view, the lone way Congress may remove a board member is if they fail to attend at least half of CPB board meetings in any calendar year.
Minus Ross, Kaplan and Rothman, CPB would be left short of a quorum, with Chair Ruby Calvert and Liz Sembler the only remaining board members. Four vacancies on the board remain unfilled.
