‘We’re Done Discussing’: Biden Civil Rights Chair Clings to Power With Help From GOP Appointee

A Joe Biden appointee, with the help of fellow Democrat commissioners and one Republican-appointed commissioner, clung to power as chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, blocking a vote Friday on President Donald Trump’s designees to lead the commission. 

In January, Trump designated two-decade veteran Republican commissioner Peter Kirsanow to be the new chairman of the Civil Rights Commission, replacing Rochelle Garza, who was appointed chair by Biden in 2023. Garza was the losing Democrat candidate for Texas attorney general in 2022.

The president also designated Commissioner Stephen Gilchrist to be the vice chair and named Carissa Mulder, a staffer for Kirsanow, to be the new staff director of the commission.

However, Garza has declined to step down as chair and didn’t allow a vote on a new chairman and vice chairman. While the president designates who among the commissioners he wants to lead the commission, the commissioners actually vote on the two positions.

The commission has eight members, split evenly among Republican and Democrat appointees. Four members are appointed by the president, two are appointed by the House, and two are appointed by the Senate. The commission was established in 1957 with the task of investigating and reporting on important civil rights issues. 

At Friday’s meeting, Republican-appointed Commissioner J. Christian Adams moved to vote on all three Trump designees—Kirsanow, Gilchrist, and Mulder. He first moved to vote on Mulder.

“On Aug. 6, we received word that the president has nominated Carissa Mulder to be the staff director,” Adams said. “As everybody knows, there’s been a vacancy in this position all year long, since the inauguration.” 

Garza cited procedural grounds to block Adams’ motion. 

“We’re done discussing. I’ve already ruled the motion out of order,” Garza said. “The statute requires that the president request a concurrence from the commissioners, and our policies, our procedures, the statute requires a formal communication that indicates that.” 

Adams responded that the White House did, in fact, notify the commission. 

Vice Chair Victoria Nourse, also a Biden appointee, jumped in to say, “Everybody who’s on this commission knows it’s a first-year class that requires actual official notice, not just hearing through the grapevine.”

Adams, the president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, took exception to the characterization, saying, “That isn’t what happened. Come on. There was a written notice.” 

“If we want to pretend that we didn’t hear about it, let’s just keep pretending, and we’ll let consequences fall where we might,” Adams said. 

Garza appeared to grow upset and replied, “That sounds very threatening.” 

“It wasn’t a threat. It’s reality,” Adams said. “The president has designated a staff director. But you don’t even want to allow a vote.”

The three other Democrat appointees on the commission voted to support Garza’s ruling to not vote for Trump’s choice of Mulder for staff director. Gail Heriot—appointed to the commission by Senate Republican leadership—abstained.

Though appointed and reappointed by Republicans since 2007, Heriot is listed as an independent on the commission website. 

Adams made another motion to add a vote for the chair and vice chair to the agenda. This time, Heriot went a step further and voted with Democrats to kill the motion.

“I’ve been working with Pete Kirsanow for nearly 18 years and I think the world of him. He will make a great chairman, maybe the best that ever was,” Heriot said.

She added, “I’ve been saying that we should recommend Clarissa as staff director, and now it seems to have happened. Stephen is a real gentleman, he will make a great vice chairman. But there are problems here.” 

She said the issue was the independence of the commission and argued it’s more of a congressional body—similar to the Government Accountability Office—than an executive branch agency. 

She also said she heard that Democrat members faced threats of halting the pay of their staffers. 

“I intend to vote ‘No’ until such time as I get assurances from the administration that it will not be retaliating in the ways that have been threatened,” Heriot said.

“There’s just been a lot of loose talk about a plan—and I’m quoting here—to halt the pay of senior assistants of the Democrats on the commission and to terminate other of their allies if they stand in the way of the nominations,” she continued. “I have no reason to believe that these threats are coming from President Trump himself or from his top advisers. … But it does seem to be coming from somewhere in the administration, so I need a clear assurance that either I’ve been misinformed and there has never been such a plan or, if there ever was, cooler heads have prevailed.”

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