The Trump administration is set to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that mandated the reinstatement of a government ethics oversight official who was dismissed by the president.
Hampton Dellinger, who heads the whistleblower protection agency known as the Office of Special Counsel, initiated legal action against the Trump administration following his termination earlier this month.
A district judge ruled that Dellinger, appointed by President Biden, should be temporarily reinstated while the legal process unfolds. On Saturday, a panel from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected the Trump administration’s motion to contest the district court’s ruling on procedural grounds.
According to a Justice Department official, the department intends to bring the matter to the Supreme Court, urging the Court to permit the administration to keep Dellinger from resuming his role throughout the legal proceedings. The application has yet to be filed with the Supreme Court.
In its application, the Justice Department contends that the actions taken by lower courts have constrained President Donald Trump’s capacity to manage the executive branch, asserting that “preventing him from exercising these powers thus inflicts the gravest of injuries on the Executive Branch and the separation of powers.”
The document states, “The United States now seeks this Court’s intervention because these judicial rulings irreparably harm the Presidency by curtailing the President’s ability to manage the Executive Branch in the earliest days of his Administration,” and it was signed by acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris.
Moreover, the Justice Department highlighted that the filings in various lower court cases “intrude upon a host” of Trump’s constitutional authorities.
The application further argues, “This Court should not allow the judiciary to govern by temporary restraining order and supplants the political accountability the Constitution ordains.”
In his lawsuit this month, Dellinger asserted that his termination was unlawful.
“That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,” stated the lawsuit. “It simply indicated: ‘On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Special Counsel of the US Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately.’”
The Trump administration’s widespread firings and efforts to reduce the size of the federal government have garnered praise from fiscal conservatives but faced significant backlash from Democrats, labor unions, and progressive groups as being unlawful.
Gabe Gutierrez contributed.
