Republicans have condemned President Joseph Biden's baseless firing of former President Trump's appointed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission General Counsel Sharon Fast Gustafson last March 5 as an action that "exceeds presidential authority."
The Christian Post reported that a group of six Republican Senators led by Kentucky's Rand Paul wrote Biden and condemned his actions against Gustafson. Paul is joined by Senators Rick Scott of Florida, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Mike Braun of Indiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
In the two-paged letter dated March 16, the senators reminded the president of the Congress-established procedures on such appointments, brought to fore the consequences of his actions, and requested the reinstatement of Gustafson.
"We write to express our alarm about the sudden dismissal of Ms. Sharon Fast Gustafson as General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on March 5, 2021, some two years and five months before her term was due to expire on August 5, 2023," the letter started off.
The senators went on to give a background on Gustafson who "made history in 2019 by becoming the first Senate-confirmed female General Counsel at the EEOC since that agency was created in 1965" and cited her achievements in the Commission.
"It is a tragic irony that you would choose to begin your presidency by firing such a trailblazing woman from an agency whose very mission is to protect workers from discrimination," the senators pointed out.
In addition, the senators quoted from Gustafson's letter and the circumstances that took place in line with her termination and said they "hope" that it was not done in "opposition to her work fighting for religious discrimination" since there was no explanation from the president for doing so. They pointed out that his actions "set a dangerous precedent, it exceeds presidential authority."
"The EEOC is a quasi-judicial agency designed by Congress to be bipartisan and free from coercive political interference. Its General Counsel is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a fixed four year term," they stressed.
The letter ended with the senators emphasizing that Gustafson's termination is against set practices, a "defiance of Supreme Court precedent," and contrary to the very nature of the Commission as designed by Congress to function independently.
The Christian Post highlighted that Republicans, in addition to Gustafson's termination, are generally alarmed by Biden's stand on religious liberty that is affected by his recently signed executive order on Equality that is against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination and encourages on-demand abortion.
"The Equality Act excludes religious liberty protections. We shouldn't have to have winners and losers in equality. No person should be discriminated against in America. We don't oppose equality. But we do oppose laws that take the rights of one and dismiss the rights of others," Lankford pointed out in his Twitter account on Wednesday.
To which Braun added on the same day, "I'm against discrimination, and that includes discrimination against those of us who hold traditional views about marriage and accept the reality of biological sex."
As per Christian Post, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins called the executive order as a threat to religious freedom and to those who do not want to fund abortion in response to the Biden's Equality executive order.
"President Biden's executive order effectively targets people of faith and faith-based organizations that provide social services that are even more vital in the midst of a pandemic," he said.
"Under this big new umbrella of 'discrimination,' any American who doesn't want to fund, offer, perform, or participate in abortion on demand will have no real choice," he added. "They can conform - or they can be punished."
According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Website, Biden has named Gwendolyn Young Reams as acting EEOC General Counsel in a press release dated March 12. Reams is said to have served the Commission for two decades in charge of the litigation programs, among others.
