WASHINGTON — The former chief of a federal oversight agency has announced his decision to give up his legal struggle with the Trump administration to reclaim his position. This move comes in acknowledgment of the tough challenge ahead at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Hampton Dellinger decided to abandon the case following the recent ruling by a federal appeals court in Washington, which backed the Trump administration’s decision to dismiss him from his role as the head of the Office of Special Counsel. This independent agency aims to protect federal employees from illegal punitive actions.
The implications of Dellinger’s removal are potentially significant, as his office had been making strides to contest the Trump administration’s high-profile dismissals of thousands of federal employees. Notably, just hours before his removal, a workers’ rights board ruled in favor of reinstating more than 5,000 employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, following a motion from Dellinger’s office.
There remains uncertainty regarding who will take over Dellinger’s role.
This situation marks a crucial point in ongoing discussions about presidential authority and the extent to which a president can replace leaders of independent bodies as part of broader administrative changes. Dellinger’s legal representatives stressed the necessity of maintaining the special counsel’s independence from presidential interference to execute their responsibilities appropriately.
“My battle to remain was not for personal reasons but for maintaining the Office of Special Counsel as Congress intended it to be—a reliable independent entity where whistleblowers can report misconduct without fearing retaliation,” Dellinger emphasized in a statement via email.
Last month, Dellinger filed a lawsuit against Trump following his abrupt dismissal via email, which was not accompanied by an explanation. According to existing laws, special counsels can only be removed by the president for clear reasons like inefficiency or wrongdoing. Initially, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of former President Obama, reinstated Dellinger while the case proceeded.
However, on Saturday, Jackson declared Dellinger’s removal illegal, mandating his reinstatement. Nonetheless, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently overturned Jackson’s order, thereby allowing the Trump administration to find a replacement for Dellinger while the legal arguments are reviewed. Many anticipated that the dispute would eventually land before the conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
Dellinger, in discussing the recent appeal court’s ruling, noted that the office would likely be led by someone closely aligned with President Trump for the interim months before any potential Supreme Court decision. He added that his “likelihood of ultimately succeeding before the Supreme Court seems low.”
“I believe the judges made a grave error because approving my dismissal—despite its provisional nature—destroys the independence provided by Congress to my role, a statutory protection recognized as legitimate for nearly five decades,” Dellinger asserted.
The question regarding restrictions on the president’s authority to dismiss agency leaders has been scrutinized by conservative justices. A previous example is highlighted by the 2020 verdict, where a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court supported Trump’s removal of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during his first term.
