The effort of President Donald Trump to eliminate the head of a federal surveillance agency was “illegal,” a federal judge in Washington, DC.
Trump’s margin ruling to eliminate Hampton Dellinger as head of the Special Advisor Office and is likely to establish a fight from the Supreme Court.
“The work of the special lawyer is to analyze and expose little ethical or illegal practices aimed at federal officials, and help ensure that complainants who reveal fraud, waste and abuse by government agencies can do so without retaliation,” Jackson wrote in his failure on Saturday. “It would be ironic, to say the least, and hostile for the purposes promoted by the Statute if the Special Council could cool in his work for fear of arbitrary or partisan elimination.”
Trump shot Dellinger by email last month when his administration carried out generalized cuts to the Federal Labor Force, including the endings of almost other dozens of government guards.
Dellinger challenged the termination days later, arguing that he violated the federal law that indicates that the president can only be eliminated by the inefficiency, negligence of duty or embezzlement in office. “
“That email did not make any attempt to meet the protection to eliminate special cause of the special lawyer,” said Dellinger’s demand. “He simply stated: ‘On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I write to inform him that his position as a special advisor to the United States Special Advisor Office is completed, immediately effective.”
Jackson issued a stay on February 10 preventing Dellinger from being eliminated while his case continue and then issued a temporary restriction order that extended the retention for two weeks.
The Trump administration appealed to the US Circuit Court of Circuit for the Columbia district, which refused to revoke the ruling in a 2-1 vote.
The Department of Justice argued that the decision of the lower court limited Trump’s ability to administer the executive branch and that “preventing him from exercising these powers thus inflicts the most serious injuries in the executive branch and the separation of powers.”
The Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to affirm Trump’s right to fire Dellinger, arguing that any other decision “would irreparably damage the presidency by reducing the president’s ability to administer the executive branch in the first days of his administration.”
The Supreme Court temporarily allowed Jackson’s decision, keeping Dellinger in his position while the case was held in the lower courts.
As head of the Special Advisor Office, Dellinger has the task of protecting federal employees from prohibited personnel practices, including reprisals for complaint of irregularities, in the workplace, the judge said in the ruling. He told reporters last week to grant the President the ability to finish his position without cause would prevent his position from doing his duties.
“If I have no independence, if you can take me without a good reason, federal employees will not have a good reason to come to me,” Dellinger said Wednesday.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comments, but shortly after the judge’s ruling, the Trump administration filed an appeal notice before the DC circuit court.
Dellinger assumed the position in March 2024 after being appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a period of five years.
Lawrence Hurley contributed.
