Trump fired six of seven Puerto Rico financial oversight board members without cause

On August 5, 2025, the Trump White House informed five members of Puerto Rico's Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) — the seven-member body Congress created in 2016 under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) to oversee the territory's court-supervised debt restructuring — that they had been terminated, effective immediately. The five were board chairman Arthur J. Gonzalez and members Cameron McKenzie, Betty A. Rosa, Juan A. Sabater, and Luis A. Ubiñas. A White House official said only that the board had been "run inefficiently and ineffectively ... for far too long," without stating the cause PROMESA requires for removal. Eight days later, on August 13, 2025, the White House fired a sixth member, Andrew Biggs, after he publicly praised his ousted colleagues, leaving John Nixon as the board's only remaining appointee out of seven statutory seats.

Updates

2025-10-03 — Federal judge grants preliminary injunction [3]

Three of the six ousted members — Gonzalez, Rosa, and Biggs — sued, represented by Democracy Defenders Fund, the Washington Litigation Group, and Cooley LLP, arguing the firings violated both PROMESA's for-cause protection and the Constitution. U.S. District Judge María Antongiorgi-Jordán of the District of Puerto Rico granted a preliminary injunction.

2026-09-01 — Preliminary injunction made permanent [3]

Judge Antongiorgi-Jordán converted the injunction to a permanent one, ruling the removals "plainly contrary to law" because they came without cause, notice, or any opportunity to respond — a ruling the government did not continue to contest after the Supreme Court's parallel decision on the removal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The other three ousted members, McKenzie, Sabater, and Ubiñas, did not join the lawsuit, and their own removals were not addressed by the ruling.