Patrick orders Catholic commissioner Prejean Boller from religious freedom panel; she disputes his authority to do so

Republican Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Feb. 11 that he removed Carrie Prejean Boller, a Catholic member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission, following a contentious Feb. 9 hearing over Zionism and antisemitism. 

Hours later, Prejean Boller disputed the removal, arguing that Patrick lacks the authority to dismiss her. Only President Donald Trump — who appointed her to the commission in June 2025 — can remove a presidential nominee, she said.

During the Feb. 9 hearing, Prejean Boller argued that her Catholic faith does not require support for political Zionism and that criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza should not automatically be labeled antisemitic. She cited multiple Catholic scholars, Scripture passages, and Jewish leaders to support her position and pressed witnesses on whether they believed her opposition to Zionism, grounded in religious conviction, made her “antisemitic.”

Patrick, who chairs the commission, announced her removal hours later in a post on X.

“No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” he wrote. “This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America. This was my decision.”

Responding to Patrick on X, Prejean Boller accused him of overstepping his role and urged him to “re-read the Executive Order issued by the President who appointed us.” She added that members “serve as equals on this Commission. Just as I cannot remove you, you cannot remove me.” 

“Unless and until I receive written notice from the President of the United States requesting my removal, I will continue to defend religious freedom for all religions on this Commission,” she said, later adding, “[I]t is clear your actions reflect a Zionist political agenda, not the President’s, not the U.S. Constitution’s, and not the purpose of this Commission.”

The dispute unfolded amid growing online controversy following the hearing. Some critics accused Prejean Boller of diverting the commission’s focus and called for her removal, while others defended her remarks as a principled expression of Catholic belief. 

Prejean Boller rejected claims that she had “hijacked” the hearing, instead framing her comments as an exercise of religious liberty. 

“I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite,” she said in a separate X post. “It makes me a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure.”

She also wrote on X that she decided to raise the issue “after watching many participants ignore, minimize, or outright deny what is plainly visible: a campaign of mass killing and starvation” against the Catholic community and broader population in Gaza. 

Catholic Church leaders, including Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, have similarly spoken out about Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza and their impact on local Christian communities. A coalition of Catholic and other Christian leaders in the Holy Land recently issued a statement warning against Christian Zionism, which they called a “damaging ideology.”

A day before her removal, Prejean Boller questioned whether the commission would dismiss her over her religious beliefs.

“[A] Religious Liberty Commission prepared to fire a commissioner for her Catholic faith? If that happens, it proves their mission was never religious liberty, but a Zionist agenda,” she wrote. “I refuse to resign.”

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