President Obama to Fill EEOC Openings Via Recess Appointments

President Obama has announced that he will make recess appointments of all four pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) nominees. The EEOC is the federal agency that enforces several federal laws that prohibit discrimination and harassment based on protected statuses such as sex, race, age (40 and older), religion and disability. Jacqueline Berrien will serve in the role of commission chair, Victoria Lipnic and Chai Feldblum will serve as commissioners, and P. David Lopez will be general counsel. The commission is a bipartisan group consisting of five total members appointed by the President, including a chair, a vice chair and three commissioners. Among other duties, the five commission members approve commission policies, issue charges of discrimination and authorize filing of lawsuits.

Since September 2004, Berrien has been associate director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She was previously a Program Officer in the Ford Foundation's Peace and Social Justice Program and has also worked as a staff attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. Berrien has taught courses at several law schools, including Harvard and Fordham.

Lipnic is a Republican and currently of counsel to the law firm Seyfarth Shaw in Washington, D.C. She previously served as assistant secretary of labor for employment standards from 2002 to 2009 and has been counsel to Republican members of the House Education and Labor Committee. She also spent time as in-house counsel to the U.S. Postal service on labor and employment matters.

Feldblum has been on the faculty at Georgetown University Law Center since 1991. Prior to her role as professor at Georgetown, she served as legislative counsel to the AIDS Project of the American Civil Liberties Union where she had a substantial role in the drafting and enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. She also contributed to the drafting of the ADA Amendments Act, which became law in September 2008. In addition to her advocacy of rights for the disabled, she has advocated for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Lopez has served at the EEOC for 13 years in the field and at headquarters and has most recently served as a supervisory trial attorney for the EEOC's Phoenix District Office. Lopez worked in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department before joining the EEOC.