The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over President Donald Trump's second-term agenda. The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the...
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept on the job
the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over
President Donald Trump's second-term agenda.
The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That's when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires.
With a bare majority of five justices, the high court neither granted nor rejected the administration's plea to immediately remove him. Instead, the court held the request in abeyance, noting that the order expires in just a few days.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has scheduled a Wednesday hearing over whether to extend her order keeping Dellinger in his post. The justices could return to the case depending on what she decides.
Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito sided with the administration, doubting whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. Acknowledging that some presidentially appointed officials have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote that “those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement.”
Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected the administration's request.
The conservative-dominated court has previously taken a robust view of presidential power, including in last year’s decision that gave presidents immunity from prosecution for actions they take in office.
The Justice Department employed sweeping language in urging the court to allow the termination of the head of an obscure federal agency with limited power. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in court papers that the lower court had crossed “a constitutional red line” by blocking Dellinger’s firing and stopping Trump “from shaping the agenda of an executive-branch agency in the new administration’s critical first days.”
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for guarding
the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions, such as retaliation for whistleblowing. Its leader “may be removed by the president only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”
Dellinger was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term in 2024.
“I am glad to be able to continue my work as an independent government watchdog and whistleblower advocate," Dellinger said in a statement. “I am grateful to the judges and justices who have concluded that I should be allowed to remain on the job while the courts decide whether my office can retain a measure of independence from direct partisan and political control.”
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