The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel will be allowed to remain in his position despite the Trump administration’s request to fire him.
Dellinger, appointed by former President Joe Biden in October 2023, was fired by President Donald Trump on Feb. 7. Dellinger quickly sued the Trump administration after his removal and received approval from a lower court to temporarily remain in his position. However, the Trump administration filed an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting the justices rule on the matter.
In a filing submitted Friday evening, however, the majority of justices declined to back the Trump administration’s appeal, allowing Dellinger to stay in his position temporarily.
Within the filing, two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, stating they would not have accepted the Trump administration’s appeal. Two conservative justices, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, also dissented, saying they would have granted the administration’s request to block the lower court’s ruling.
“The district court grappled with none of these complications before ordering Mr. Dellinger’s reinstatement. And if there are answers to the questions its remedial order raises, they appear nowhere in that court’s decision. Accordingly, I would vacate the district court’s order and remand with instructions to consider the ‘boundaries of traditional equitable relief,’” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
In Dellinger’s lower court order, the special counsel’s case is on hold until Feb. 26. With the order set to expire next week, a hearing is scheduled to consider an additional pause on Dellinger’s removal.
“Until now, as far as we are aware, no court in American history has wielded an injunction to force the President to retain an agency head whom the President believes should not be entrusted with executive power and to prevent the President from relying on his preferred replacement,” Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in a petition to support Dellinger.
The Trump Administration did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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