@maepled.bsky.social
Reposted
Wrote about the Wheelchair-to-Warfare Pipeline with @fractalecho.bsky.social. This is just another example. newrepublic.com/article/1793...
How Disabled People Get Exploited to Build the Technology of War
The cutting-edge products that Big Tech and the Pentagon are developing could be rebuilding an untold number of lives. Instead, they’re being sent to the battlefield to ruin more.
newrepublic.com
July 1, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Wrote about the Wheelchair-to-Warfare Pipeline with @fractalecho.bsky.social. This is just another example. newrepublic.com/article/1793...
Reposted
Note: This is not like any other "removal" case, not even from a multi-member board. CPB is a private corporation.
The lawsuit reflects that: It is not just the purportedly fired people suing; this is the entity & the whole board. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the lead plaintiff here.
The lawsuit reflects that: It is not just the purportedly fired people suing; this is the entity & the whole board. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the lead plaintiff here.
![COMPLAINT
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting ("CPB"), a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation created by Congress in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (the "Act"), 47 U.S.C. § 396, the entirety of the Board of Directors for CPB, and individual Board members Laura G. Ross, Thomas E. Rothman, and Diane Kaplan file this Complaint seeking a judicial declaration that an email dated April 28, 2025, purportedly from Trent Morse, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel, to three of the Board members of CPB asserting that President Trump had purportedly terminated their positions on the Board is of no legal effect given that the President has no power
to remove or terminate CPB's Board members. As set forth in the Act, government guidance, and well-established legal precedent, the CPB was created by Congress to expressly be "a private corporation [to] be created to facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to
afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control." Id. at § 396 (a)(10). To
ensure that CPB was insulated from partisan governmental interference and control and ensure its
autonomy, Congress expressly provided various protections, including that:](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreifowjers6ihvjruftv2mrxphqkndewhn2hngdj3ot5ut57y5p7kba@jpeg)
![CPB is not a federal agency subject to the President's authority, but rather a private corporation. See Id. at § 396(b) ("[CPB] will not be an agency or establishment of the United States Government. The Corporation shall be subject to the provisions of this section, and, to the extent consistent with this section, to the District of Columbia Nonprofit Corporation Act.");
• CPB's Board members are not officers of the United States, and thus are not within the removal provisions of Article Il of the Constitution. See Id. at § 396(d)(2) ("The members of the [CPB] Board shall not, by reason of such membership, be deemed to be officers or employees of the United States.");
• CPB Board members cannot be affected, controlled, or disturbed by the actions of the government. See Id. at § 398(c) (forbidding "any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] ...");
Page 3 of 22
Case 1:25-cv-01305
Document 1
Filed 04/29/25
Page 4 of 22
• CPB Board members forfeit their membership in only one scenario, not present here.
See Id. at § 396(e)(7) ("Members of the Board shall attend not less than 50 percent of all duly convened meetings of the Board in any calendar year. A member who fails to meet the requirement ... shall forfeit membership.");
• The Act omits the typical statutory provision when creating a federal agency that the Board members serve at the pleasure of the President.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreigkkoraiusjeiqiwl525qryeeypzcej2dmsjzjdx6tobpztm3dbym@jpeg)
April 29, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Note: This is not like any other "removal" case, not even from a multi-member board. CPB is a private corporation.
The lawsuit reflects that: It is not just the purportedly fired people suing; this is the entity & the whole board. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the lead plaintiff here.
The lawsuit reflects that: It is not just the purportedly fired people suing; this is the entity & the whole board. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is the lead plaintiff here.