(2025-02-16) Fight Over Trumps Firing Of Watchdog Reaches Supreme Court

Fight over Donald Trump's firing of watchdog reaches Supreme Court. *President Donald Trump’s bid to expand his power to fire executive branch officials reached the Supreme Court on Sunday — the first of many fast-moving legal challenges during the early weeks of Trump’s second term to land at the high court..

Trump asked the justices to lift a lower-court order that temporarily reversed his dismissal of the head of a usually obscure office that enforces laws relating to federal employees.

The Trump administration decried the lower court’s order reinstating Office of Special Counsel chief Hampton Dellinger as a grave and unwarranted intrusion on presidential power that threatened the president’s ability to oversee the executive branch.

Trump fired Dellinger, an appointee of Joe Biden, on Feb. 7. Dellinger sued to get his job back, citing a federal statute that limits the ability of the president to remove the special counsel. A federal district judge agreed with Dellinger and ordered the Trump administration to allow him back in his job while litigation proceeded.

“This case involves an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrants immediate relief,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in an emergency application.

Harris complained that the short-term restoration of Dellinger to his office inflicts “irreparable harm” on Trump’s “ability to manage the Executive Branch in the earliest days of his Administration.

Harris’ muscular arguments for executive power did appear to rule out one option that Trump seemed to flirt with in recent days: simply defying the courts when they disagree with him. On Saturday, Trump posted to social media a provocative quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Trump’s message was quickly reposted by many of his appointees, including some at the Justice Department.

Dellinger is just one of several executive branch officials Trump has tried to fire, despite federal laws meant to protect the heads of so-called independent agencies from politically motivated terminations. Among those other officials is a member of the National Labor Relations Board, which hears complaints about unfair labor practices.