Roger Severino, who was appointed to the United States Conference Conference Board by former President Donald Trump in January 2021, filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden on Wednesday after being informed that he was being fired.
The Biden administration has relieved some Trump nominees from their positions. On Wednesday, Biden asked 10 Trump nominees to the Federal Services Impasse Panel to resign.
Severino said on Wednesday that although he had been asked to vacate his three-year term on the Council by the deputy director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Gautam Raghavan, at 5 pm on Wednesday, he would refuse to resign.
“President Biden’s attempt to remove me contrary to the law exposes his high promises of healing and unity for all Americans as nothing more than cynical manipulation,” Severino said in an email on Wednesday. Newsweek.
“As I am not intimidated, not even by the President himself, I will not resign from my duly commissioned post and I hope to see how President Biden tries to justify his vindictive actions in court,” added Severino.
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.
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According to a copy of the complaint filed with the US District Court for the District of Columbia sent to Newsweek, Raghavan asked Severino to resign “on behalf of President Biden”.
Severino responded by asking Raghavan the reason for his request.
“Neither Mr. Raghavan nor anyone else in the White House responded to Mr. Severino’s email,” the court documents said.
Severino claimed that Biden does not have the authority to end Severino’s term on the Council, which, according to the lawsuit, “has no executive power”.
According to its website, ACUS provides “advice and recommendations from non-partisan experts on federal agency procedures”. Severino’s dispute says that “for information and belief”, Raghavan asked three other ACUS members to resign.
“President Biden’s threat to terminate Mr. Severino and his companions is therefore illegal and should be promptly prohibited,” the suit said.
Along with Biden and Raghavan, the Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Catherine M. Russell, was named as a defendant in the case of Severino.
Severino served as director of the Office of Civil Rights for Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Trump administration. During Severino’s term, HHS changed a rule in the Affordable Care Act that was designed to protect people, including transgender individuals, from sexual discrimination. According to a June 2020 statement from HHS, the rule marked a return to “the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the clear meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.”
Biden’s removal from members of the Federal Services Impasse Panel was praised by the president of the American Federation of Government Officials, Everett Kelley. In a statement on Tuesday, Kelley described the former panel members as “heaps of transparently biased union annihilators” who were “notorious for ignoring the law to destroy labor rights and promote an extreme political agenda”.