May 13, 2025
Leadership from the EEOC also alerted her that she may be fired due to accusations of “profoundly unprofessional” conduct.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is under fire for terminating an administrative judge in New York who allegedly resisted directives from the Trump administration, including an executive order from President Donald Trump to label male and female as two “immutable” sexes, Associated Press reports.
EEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz was placed on administrative leave after spearheading an email to the agency’s new Trump-appointed lead, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, and over 1,000 colleagues, criticizing Trump’s executive order in February 2025. Leadership from the EEOC also alerted her that she may be fired due to accusations of “profoundly unprofessional” conduct. “Of particular concern, your February email was ultimately circulated to multiple press outlets, potentially resulting in significant reputational harm to the agency,” the notice read.
In Ortiz’s email to Lucas, the judge said, “You are not fit to be our chair, much less hold a license to practice law.” “I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law,” read the leaked letter on Reddit. Despite receiving praise on the platform, the agency, conditioned to protect workers’ civil rights, revoked the judge’s email privileges for close to seven days and issued a written reprimand for “discourteous conduct.”
According to The New York Times, Ortiz didn’t stop there and sent more emails to Lucas, calling on her to resign and accusing her of misconduct. One accusation included Ortiz asking the leader what she was permitting herself to be involved in. She then linked the email to a video of the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” The move led Ortiz’s supervisor, New York District Office Acting District Director Arlean Nieto, to accuse her of “conduct unbecoming of a federal employee” and failing to follow the agency’s email policy.
Ortiz’s actions were cited in a White House proposal on April 18 to make it easier to fire federal workers. The EEOC judge was listed as an example of bureaucrats who “use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences.” However, Ortiz says she isn’t bothered by being called out, claiming Trump “just gave me an even bigger platform.” She has plans to fight back, but has no regrets about what was said. “These are quite literally trumped-up charges,” she said.
“I stand behind my actions, which support the rule of law and the trans community.” Since Trump took office in January 2025, the EEOC has gone through major changes, including eliminating three Democratic commissioners who stood in his way of dismantling diversity and inclusion programs, ending protections for transgender and nonbinary workers, and other campaign priorities. After one of the fired commissioners, Jocelyn Samuels, filed a lawsuit arguing her termination was a violation of the Civil Rights Act, the president has since named an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, Brittany Panuccio, to fill one of the vacancies — if confirmed by the Senate.
With Panuccio potentially in place, the EEOC would establish another Republican majority 2-1, leaving room for Trump to make more major policy changes.
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