A federal judge blocked the firing of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel, stating his termination under the Trump administration was “unlawful.”
Dellinger sued President Donald Trump last month after he received a February 7 email notifying him of his termination. His firing was without cause, which he argued violated a law that says the president can remove the special counsel for “only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was nominated to the bench by former president Barack Obama, granted his motion for a permanent injunction on Saturday.
The email announcing his termination “was an unlawful, ultra vires act,” she wrote in a Saturday ruling. “Therefore, it is null and void, and plaintiff is and shall be the Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel for the remainder of his five-year term unless and until he is removed,” the judge continued.
His term is set to end in 2029.
“It is his independence that qualifies him to watch over the time-tested structure that is supposed to bar executive officials from taking federal jobs from qualified individuals and handing them out to political allies – a system that Congress found intolerable over a century ago. The position would be entirely ineffective if the Special Counsel were to be compelled to operate with the sword of at-will removal hanging over his head, or if a President, chagrined by whistleblower or merits system protections could undermine the [office of the special counsel’s] independence by threatening to use it,” Jackson added.
The administration filed an appeal, launching a process that could end at the Supreme Court.
The ruling comes as Dellinger is challenging the removal of probationary workers who were fired as part of the Trump administration’s massive overhaul of the government. A federal board on Tuesday halted the terminations of several probationary workers after Dellinger said their firings may have been unlawful.
The Justice Department says removal protections for the special counsel are unconstitutional and prevent the president from rightfully installing his preferred agency head.
Dellinger's lawyers say the special counsel is meant to be insulated from presidential interference because of the office's unique responsibilities to protect whistleblowers.
