Three Puerto Rico Oversight Board Members Sue Trump Over Alleged Illegal Firings
Lawsuit argues removals from the federally appointed board were unlawful and without due process, challenging presidential authority over territorial officers.
Three members of Puerto Rico’s federally appointed financial control board filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging their removals by the Trump administration were unlawful and seeking reinstatement.
The suit names former board chair Arthur J. Gonzalez, fellow member Betty A. Rosa, and Andrew G. Biggs as plaintiffs and targets President Donald Trump, White House personnel chief Sergio Gor, board member John E. Nixon, and the board’s executive director, Robert F. Mujica. The plaintiffs say they were dismissed in August by email, without a stated cause or any prior notice or hearing, in a process they describe as unlawful.
The lawsuit contends that Trump lacks inherent authority to terminate Gonzalez, Biggs or Rosa because they are not officers of the United States in the executive branch. It highlights that Promesa, the 2016 law creating the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Board, established a financial oversight body for the commonwealth and its agencies and that removals “for cause” require notice and a hearing—which none of the three received.
The case asks a federal judge to reinstate the three and to declare the removals unlawful. Eduardo Santacana, an attorney with Cooley LLP assisting the plaintiffs, said the suit is about power: “This is a case about power over the board and over Puerto Rico. The president is attempting to exert a lot of power here that he does not have.”
Six board members have been fired by the Trump administration in total, including Cameron McKenzie, Juan Sabater and Luis Ubiñas; the suit does not name them. Four of the six dismissed members were Democrats, while Nixon remains on the board as a Republican. Gonzalez is a retired bankruptcy judge; Rosa is the commissioner of the New York State Education Department and president of the University of the State of New York; and Biggs is a social security reform expert.
The board was created to oversee a debt restructuring process after Puerto Rico’s 2015 declaration of an inability to pay more than $70 billion in public debt and its 2017 municipal bankruptcy filing—the largest in U.S. history. At the time of the dismissals, the board had pressed for a roughly $2.6 billion payment to creditors as part of a broader restructuring effort, a stance that could influence how bondholders are treated in potential settlements. Critics worry that new appointees aligned with the administration could shift the board’s posture on debt repayment.
The seven-member board is appointed by the president with Senate confirmation; six can be removed by the president, and members serve three-year terms and can be removed only for cause. The ongoing legal dispute adds another chapter to a long-running, high-stakes debt-restructuring saga that has shaped Puerto Rico’s political and financial landscape for years.