The Justice Department doubled down on its demand that the Supreme Court step in to greenlight President Trump’s firing of a government whistleblower office head, warning in a Wednesday letter that he is still “wielding executive power.”
The high court last week punted on the emergency motion to immediately terminate U.S. Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, keeping him in his post in what has become the first major test of the new administration’s effort to consolidate control over federal independent agencies.
In the new letter, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris pointed to a federal judge’s ruling hours earlier that extended the block on Dellinger’s firing for another three days.
“Those developments underscore the grounds for vacating the district court’s order,” Harris wrote.
Her letter also noted that as Dellinger has remained on the job, his office on Wednesday convinced the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) to temporarily block the firing of six federal employees terminated as part of the administration’s efforts to oust probationary staffers.
Trump had also attempted to fire the Democratic-appointed MSPB chair, but another court has temporarily reinstated her.
“In short, a fired Special Counsel is wielding executive power, over the elected Executive’s objection, to halt employment decisions made by other executive agencies,” she wrote.
Since taking office last month, Trump has moved to rapidly consolidate the White House’s control over agencies that have traditionally held independence from the political inclinations of the presidency.
The firings have set up a series of cases that could set the stage for the Supreme Court to overturn its 90-year-old precedent allowing Congress to institute removal protections for such agencies.
Dellinger’s office, the Office of Special Counsel, provides an avenue for whistleblowers to report concerns about government wrongdoing and works to protect them from reprisal. It also responds to potential violations of the Hatch Act, the law that guards against electioneering by federal employees.
It is different from the Justice Department special counsels, such as Jack Smith, who are appointed to oversee particular investigations.
