Watchdog agency head tells justices to stay out of firing dispute

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Watchdog agency head tells justices to stay out of firing dispute

By Amy Howe
on Feb 18, 2025 at 5:50 pm


The district court is fast-tracking the case, Dellinger told the justices, and could decide it “in ways that avoid any need for this Court’s intervention.” (Katie Barlow)

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger told the justices on Tuesday to leave in place a federal judge’s temporary order to reinstate him to his job. The head of the independent agency charged with whistleblower protection said that the Trump administration’s plea for intervention on Sunday night is a meritless attempt to “declare a five-alarm fire” over the order. All that the order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accomplishes, Dellinger told the justices, is to maintain the status quo – allowing him to remain in office – “while the district court engages in extremely expedited proceedings to address the merits of the parties’ underlying dispute.”

The Trump administration fired Dellinger in an email on Feb. 7. The Office of Special Counsel is tasked with protecting federal employees, and in particular whistleblowers, from retaliation and is considered independent from the sitting president. Dellinger had served as head of the agency since 2024, when he was appointed by then-President Joe Biden to serve a five-year term.

Under the 1978 federal law creating the Office of Special Counsel, Dellinger could be removed from his position only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The Feb. 7 email did not cite any of those reasons for his firing.

On Feb. 12, Jackson issued a temporary restraining order that reinstated Dellinger for 14 days. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the government’s appeal, holding that the appeals court lacked the authority to consider it.

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Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Watchdog agency head tells justices to stay out of firing dispute, SCOTUSblog (Feb. 18, 2025, 5:50 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/02/watchdog-agency-head-tells-justices-to-stay-out-of-firing-dispute/

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