The Supreme Court should reject an emergency appeal from the Trump administration asking for quick action to allow the firing of the head of the federal agency that protects whistleblowers, lawyers for the embattled official told the justices on Tuesday.
The legal fight over the administration's move to oust Hampton Dellinger as the leader of the Office of Special Counsel is the first of an anticipated steady stream of pleas to the high court from lawyers for President Donald Trump and his administration in response to court orders that have slowed his second-term agenda.
After Dellinger sued to block his removal from office, a district judge in Washington, D.C., temporarily reinstated him in an order that expires on Feb. 26. A federal appeals court panel refused to intervene.
A day later, the Justice Department took the case to the justices, arguing that Trump has unbridled power to fire the heads of independent agencies. The brief cited last year's Supreme Court decision that gave Trump immunity from criminal prosecution and reflected a muscular view of executive power.
Dellinger has argued that the law that created the whistleblowers' office says he can only be fired for problems with the performance of his job, none of which were cited in the email dismissing him.
But on Tuesday, his lawyers said the justices don't have to reach potentially weighty issues of presidential power at the moment. They should rely on standard legal rules that typically do not allow the appeal of a short-lasting court order known as a temporary restraining order, Dellinger's lawyers wrote.
"At bottom, there is no merit to the government's effort to declare a five-alarm fire based on a short-lived TRO that preserves" Dellinger's job while lower courts weigh the legal issues, Dellinger's lawyers wrote.
The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for guarding the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions, such as retaliation for whistleblowing. Dellinger was appointed by former Democratic President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term in 2024.
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