Prof. Nicholas Bednar ’16 Authors Commentary in Slate on Election Assistance Commission Firings

Professor Nicholas Bednar ’16 authored a commentary in Slate about Donald Trump’s firing of the three remaining members of the Election Assistance Commission. The commission, created by Congress in 2002 to administer the Help America Vote Act, assists states in reforming their elections. The firings leave the four-member commission with no commissioners, meaning it cannot take official action until new members are installed. They also come days after the Supreme Court granted the president power to fire leaders of independent agencies, weakening a legal framework that for decades had insulated bipartisan federal commissions from direct White House control. Prof. Bednar wrote, “Consequently, a president who dislikes the work performed by a commission can now dismantle it without securing new legislation to defund or abolish it. Because commissions are small—often three to five members—a well-timed pair of firings can leave a group without the number of members it needs to act. With the president’s removal of enough members to drop the commission below its quorum, then refusal to fill the vacancies, the agency continues to exist on paper but cannot decide cases, promulgate rules, or approve enforcement actions.”