Two senior financial regulators ousted by President Donald Trump filed suit Monday seeking reinstatement, arguing that their abrupt firings from the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board violated federal law and the U.S. Constitution.
Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka, both Democrats confirmed by the Senate to fixed terms on the NCUA Board, alleged in a 12-page complaint filed on April 28 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, that Trump’s actions were “patently unlawful” and left the federal credit union regulator without a quorum, paralyzing its policymaking authority.
According to their lawsuit, Trump cannot remove independent agency board members without cause, a protection embedded in the Federal Credit Union Act and recognized by decades of Supreme Court precedent. Harper and Otsuka alleged that the terminations, delivered via near-identical emails on April 15 with no stated reason, violated that framework....
