Overview

• U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton blocked President Trump’s removal of Travis LeBlanc and Edward Felten from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB).
• The ruling determined that PCLOB’s structure and function indicate congressional intent to restrict at-will removal of its members.
• The decision reinstates the two Democratic members, though the board still lacks a quorum to conduct its mandated oversight activities.
• The Department of Justice plans to appeal the ruling, with broader implications for other ongoing legal challenges to Trump’s firings of independent agency members.
• PCLOB, created post-9/11, oversees counterterrorism policies to ensure they respect privacy and civil liberties, a role Judge Walton emphasized as incompatible with unchecked presidential removal powers.