A federal judge in DC must decide whether EEOC commissioner Jocelyn Samuels was wrongly fired by President Trump. Prof. Jane Manners argues that in omitting removal criteria when it created the EEOC via Title VIl, Congress intended for the commissioners to have absolute protection.”To me, this is a tragedy, that this understanding has been lost, because you’ve got these agencies where independence is of critical importance, and this argument is not even being made that the statute means absolute independence, absolute unremovability,” she said.

Trump Agency Firing Cases March Toward Receptive Supreme Court As litigation over the president’s power to remove agency leaders moves through the courts, observers note that the Supreme Court has been eroding safeguards embodied in a 1935 decision, Humphrey’s Executor, for a long time. “There’s a lot of reasons to think Humphrey’s is on its last legs,” said Prof. Jane Manners.

Does the US President bear a “duty of care?” Prof. Jane Manners and co-author Melissa Lane look at the historic evidence and offer an innovative proposal for ensuring future executives take heed in their LA Times op-ed. Read More

If re-elected President, Donald Trump vows to “obliterate the deep state,” a reference to the administrative agencies who carry out the work of government. Prof. Jane Manners talks about the role these agencies play in our democracy with NPR. Read More

Prof. Jane Manners, a legal historian with expertise in how Congress has functioned over time, joins a call for proportional representation in the House of Representatives. Read More

Professor Jane Manners, who is a legal historian, joined a panel of legal scholars to discuss historical and recent court cases at the American Political History Conference. Read more.