From the Editors: The Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission cannot ‘get stuff done’

Pennsylvania doesn’t have a state human relations commission any more — not one that functions, anyway.

Founded in 1955 and led by a board that is supposed to draw from both major parties, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) is charged with enforcing state laws that prohibit discrimination. The governor appoints commissioners, who must be confirmed by the state senate. Only six may belong to the same party.

Since Governor Josh Shapiro took office in 2023, he has declined to fill any of the vacancies on the eleven-member commission. Now, the total membership has diminished to five. Short of a quorum, it is now impossible for the commission to even hold a meeting. The laws against discrimination are still on the books, but the main body charged with resolving cases that don’t settle voluntarily is no longer operating.

It is, perhaps, cliché to say so, but if a Republican governor allowed the PHRC to lapse into uselessness through his inaction, we would never hear the end of it from the mainstream press. Yet our Democratic governor has done exactly this and his inability to even nominate someone to fill the vacancies now means the PHRC is quite unable to “get shit done.”

We wrote about this a year ago, when there were only four vacancies and the commission was short-handed, but functioning. Now there are six, and it’s moribund. With only five members remaining — all Democrats — the system is breaking down.

Why has this happened? No one in the governor’s office is saying, but the news this month that the PHRC’s executive director, Chad Dion Lassiter, was leaving (or being forced out) after a dispute about “improper expenses” adds a further layer of mystery and seeming ineptitude.

In a time of declining trust across institutions but especially across government, it is essential that the state work harder than ever to show that they are worthy of trust and that they will deliver on their promises. Instead, we have a governmental body that doesn’t even have enough people there to meet the legal minimum requirements of functionality.

It is also worth noting that the PHRC’s mission has shifted significantly from its original purpose. As we noted earlier this week, Lassiter describes his work as the Executive Director as that of a social justice advocate. The anti-discrimination mission the PHRC was established to pursue has morphed into a taxpayer-funded advocacy group for the excesses of Ibram Kendi-style social justice warriors. Perhaps this hard-left shift explains why Shapiro has been unable to find anyone — and especially any Republican — to join the commission?

If you asked Governor Shapiro whether anti-discrimination laws were important to him, he would surely say that they were. But his actions — or inaction — with regard to the PHRC cast doubt on that. Shapiro should do the bare minimum and nominate commissioners — including some Republicans — to fill the vacancies and get this agency working again as the law originally intended. Or, if he really thinks the commission is not worth making an effort for, he should ask the legislature to disband it. At a cost of $14M annually, maybe a little less government is a good thing.