The landmark Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, enacted under President Jimmy Carter, created the Office of Special Counsel to protect employees engaging in whistleblower and other legally protected activity, like whistleblowing. DJT purports to fire the Special Counsel. Judge Amy Berman Jackson has blocked DJT's illegal firing.
Read full text of Judge Amy Berman Jackson's order:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297.32.0.pdf
From The Washington Post:
Judge says Trump cannot fire head of independent watchdog agency
The federal judge’s decision blocks Trump from removing Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel and sets up a likely Supreme Court battle over the president’s powers.
The Trump administration has indicated in court filings that it would swiftly appeal any such ruling to the Supreme Court, which on Feb. 21 declined to intervene until the litigation proceeded further.
Though its name is similar, the Office of Special Counsel is unrelated to the special counsels appointed by the Justice Department to handle cases in which the department faces a potential conflict of interest.
Dellinger, a Senate-confirmed appointee of President Joe Biden, sued the administration after he received a short email in February firing him from his role without cause. He alleged in court documents that his termination violated a law that says the president can only remove the special counsel for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Dellinger’s five-year term was set to end in 2029.
Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that Trump has the power to remove Dellinger without cause, saying a 1978 statute passed by Congress that restricts the ability to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel is unconstitutional.
Jackson on Feb. 12 ordered Dellinger reinstated temporarily while she considered arguments from both sides. An appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s emergency appeal of that order, prompting the administration to ask the Supreme Court to intervene. The justices delayed ruling on the administration’s request so that Jackson could hold a hearing with the parties.
Trump has also tried to remove more than a dozen inspectors general, as well as members of the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. Many of the ousted officials are contesting their removals in court.
In addition to fighting his own ouster, Dellinger has argued that the administration’s mass firing of probationary federal employees is probably illegal. He asked the Merit Systems Protection board this week to halt the dismissal of six probationary employees while his office investigates their complaints. Dellinger said the firings appear “contrary to a reasonable reading of the law” and said he was considering “ways to seek relief for a broader group.”
The merit board granted his request to stay the terminations for 45 days.
The president has broad power under Article II of the Constitution to choose the leaders of federal agencies or fire them at will. But Congress carved out exceptions intended to preserve the independence and impartiality of certain independent agency leaders.
The Supreme Court has upheld for-cause removal rules for agencies with multiple leaders but recently ruled that such restrictions don’t apply to certain agencies with a single director. Dellinger’s case focuses on whether he is a true agency head who can be removed at will or an “inferior officer” who can be protected from firing without cause.
During a hearing Wednesday, Jackson challenged arguments by the administration’s lawyers that reversing the firing would encroach on the president’s constitutional authority to appoint people he trusts to executive branch positions.
“His actual job is to be a check and balance on the president,” she said of Dellinger.
Jackson questioned how the special counsel could fulfill his duty of protecting whistleblowers if the president could summarily fire him in the same way he could dismiss a member of his Cabinet. “How does that make any sense?” she asked.
Justice Department lawyer Madeline McMahon said barring Dellinger’s removal would cause Trump to “lose control over an executive branch agency” and would represent an “intrusion” into Trump’s authority under the Constitution.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
2 comments:
Whatever causes agencies to go down hill faster, that's what Trump will do. I wouldn't put it past him to encourage the hiring of people who would sabotage government just being themselves basically. That's really all it takes of you don't have oversight and accountability at the agencies. People just do whatever they want to until all the descent people leave and citizens stay away from their employees.
Elon Musk has 14 kids probably from 14 different women. I wonder how many other kids Trump has and doesn't know about... because of the rapes.
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