Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson said on Feb. 26 that she is extending a block on the firing of special counsel Hampton Dellinger. The block was set to expire at midnight on Feb. 26 but is extended to March 1 while the judge considers new developments in the case.
President Donald Trump removed Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a watchdog agency, on Feb. 7.
Dellinger sued in response, noting that his term is meant to last five years, and that he cannot be removed except for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Jackson issued a temporary block on his removal, and the administration filed an appeal, which was dismissed on Feb. 12 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Jackson noted that although it’s within her jurisdiction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to extend the block for another two weeks, she is reluctant to drag the matter out that much longer. However, she said she needed more time to consider briefs filed by both sides of the case, one of which had not yet made it to her desk.
The judge considered arguments from both sides in a hearing on Feb. 26, hinting that the attorneys may soon be appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case is complex and touches on the president’s power to decide the personnel of the executive branch.
The judge opened the trial by clarifying that the White House does not dispute that it circumvented the rules by removing Dellinger without citing a specific cause. Rather, she said, the White House is alleging that the rule itself is unconstitutional, since it infringes on the right of the president to remove agency heads.
Attorneys for the plaintiff argued that the rule is clear and necessary to ensure the OSC’s independence and protection from retaliation.
The judge seemed to echo this logic, saying the OSC seems “deliberately constructed to have a foot in, and a foot out of the administration,” since it is part of the executive branch but also reports wrongdoing and whistleblower complaints to Congress as well as the president.
She questioned how the special counsel could perform this difficult oversight—which includes oversight of the president himself—if he could be fired for doing his job.
“Why should he be able to remove him at whim?” she asked.
Meanwhile, during his reinstatement period, Dellinger has moved to oppose some of Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal government.
On Feb. 24, he said the firing of six federal employees “without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law,” and was probably motivated by a desire to reduce the federal workforce.
