The Trump administration will request that the U.S. Supreme Court overturn a lower court decision that ordered the reinstatement of a government ethics watchdog who had been fired by the president.
Hampton Dellinger, the head of the whistleblower protection agency Office of Special Counsel, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after he was dismissed earlier this month.
A district judge had ruled that Dellinger, a Biden appointee, should be temporarily reinstated during the ongoing legal proceedings. The Trump administration’s attempt to block this order on procedural grounds was rejected by a D.C. Circuit panel on Saturday.
The Justice Department now plans to take the case to the Supreme Court, seeking the Court’s intervention to allow the administration to keep Dellinger off the job while the litigation continues, according to a Justice Department official who shared a copy of the application. The application has not yet been formally docketed by the Supreme Court.
In its application, the Justice Department argues that the lower court rulings limit President Donald Trump’s authority to manage the executive branch and that preventing him from exercising these powers causes significant harm to the Executive Branch and the principle of separation of powers.
“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,” the application states, signed by Acting Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris.
The Justice Department also argued that filings from lower courts in multiple cases “intrude upon a host” of President Trump’s constitutional powers.
“This Court should not permit the judiciary to govern through temporary restraining orders and undermine the political accountability mandated by the Constitution,” the application stated.
In his lawsuit, Dellinger claimed that his dismissal was illegal.
“That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,” the lawsuit read. “It stated simply: ‘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 drawn praise from fiscal conservatives but criticism from Democrats, labor unions, and progressive groups, who have called them unlawful.
