After being told that he was being fired, Roger Severino, former President Donald Trump appointee, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against President Joe Biden.
Trump appointee sued Biden over illegal termination threat
WASHINGTON, DC - January 18: HHS Office of Civil Rights Director Roger Severino speaks at a news conference announcing a new division on Conscience and Religious Freedom at the Department of Health and Human Services January 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. The new division, part of the department's Office of Civil Rights, will aide medical professionals who object to certain procedures on religious grounds.
In January 2021, Trump appointed Roger Severino to the Council of the Administration Conference of the United States. Biden's administration stripped off any Trump appointees to their duties. On Wednesday, President Biden urged ten Trump appointees to the Federal Services Impasse Panel to resign.
According to Newsweek, Severino said that while the White House Presidential Personnel Office Deputy Director Gautam Raghavan was asked to vacate his three-year-long term on the Council by 5:00 p.m., he would refuse to resign on Wednesday.
In an email, Severino told Newsweek that President Biden's attempt to remove him contrary to law exposes the President's lofty promises of healing and uniting Americans as nothing more than cynical manipulation. "Because I am not one to be bullied, not even by the President himself, I will not resign my duly commissioned post and look forward to seeing how President Biden tries to justify his vindictive actions in court," he added.
Based on a copy of the case filed with the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia obtained by Newsweek, Raghavan asked Severino to resign "on behalf of President Biden."
Severino answered, asking Raghavan for the explanation behind his submission. The court records say, "Neither Mr. Raghavan nor any else from the White House has responded to Mr.Severino's email."
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Severino argued that Biden has little right to cancel his tenure on the Board, which "does not wield any executive power," according to the complaint.
The case filed in D.C.'s district court on Wednesday claims that Biden will not arbitrarily revoke his three-year ACUS tenure. The ACUS law specifies that the tenure of Severino on the Council lasts for three years, and the statute allows no provision or allowance for the dismissal of the presidency.
According to Fox News, the suit contains an email from the deputy director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, Gautam Raghavan.
As defendants in the case, Raghavan, President Biden, and Catherine M. Russell, who works as head of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, were all named. Severino states that similar emails were sent from other ACUS participants. The White House did not respond to Fox News' request for comment immediately.
The tenure of Severino at HHS involved the pursuit of some of Trump's most divisive gender, abortion, sexuality, and religious freedom policies. Fox News earlier reported how former administration officials alleged that the HHS general counsel's office stalled the agenda of the president at OCR.
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Trump appointee Roger Severino joins EPPC
The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) reported that Roger Severino would join the academics team, a welcome and gratifying addition. After Ryan Anderson succeeded Ed Whelan as president earlier this week, the first hire at EPPC was made, as per National Review.
After three years as Head of the Civil Rights Office at the Department of Health and Human Services, Roger joins EPPC, creating the government's first division to oversee the protection and regulation of religion and religious freedom.
He will make full use of that expertise at EPPC, leading up to the HHS Transparency Program, which will track HHS's work from the outside. Among the project's objectives is to guarantee that all human beings are safe from infancy until natural death and ensure that health insurance is never used for abortion and assisted suicide. The project will also focus on conscience and religious-freedom rights in the health-care system. The initiative would also reflect on the protection of conscience and religious freedom in the health care sector.
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