February 3, 2025–Due Process Institute and a host of civil liberties organizations joined to strongly condemn the White House firing of three Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) members, which shattered the independence that is key to the Board’s effectiveness. We urge Congress to act expeditiously to restore that independence.
PCLOB was originally proposed by the 9-11 Commission and has existed for nearly two decades as a critical oversight entity for protecting rights and combatting surveillance abuse. Its investigations and reports have debunked false claims by the intelligence community about mass surveillance programs, prompted declassification and disclosure of key facts about surveillance that had needlessly been kept secret, and spurred important legislative reforms.
Firing PCLOB members will significantly undermine the Board’s independence, and could make it impossible for it to conduct this type of effective oversight in the future. If at-will termination becomes acceptable, a President of either party will be able to block investigation of controversial or improper surveillance activities by removing any PCLOB member who begins to scrutinize conduct that the executive wants to keep hidden. The White House could kill any reports or findings from PCLOB it does not want issued, firing Board members to halt the release of information the White House wants covered up. Even the mere threat of firings would chill PCLOB from properly performing its duties, with members seeking to stay in the good graces of the White House rather than acting as a vigilant watchdog. It is for precisely this reason that Congress in 2007 removed a provision of PCLOB’s statutory charter indicating that its members “serve at the pleasure of the President.”
The effort to destroy PCLOB’s independence, and thereby significantly undermine its basic effectiveness as an oversight entity, raises significant concerns over how the executive’s surveillance powers could be misused by this or future administrations.