Name: Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court to Permit Firing of Office of Special Counsel Chief
Uploaded: 2025-02-17T14:28:36.000Z
Description: The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 16 to allow it to fire the head of an agency that protects whistleblowers after lower courts said it could not.

NTD Newsroom comprises teams of reporters, editors, and producers assigned to cover breaking news and other stories.


NTD Newsroom

NTD Plus

News

News you can trust from the U.S. and around the world. Critical information and insight. We cover the stories that others don’t. NTD News Today airs Monday–Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

NTD News Today

Trump Announces National Garden of American Heroes Plans

Top Officer: Navy Funding Could Lapse by July

UK Health Secretary Quits Starmer’s Cabinet

Paul Greaney is an NTD news anchor and producer. Since joining the company in 2018, he has anchored the station’s flagship Evening News broadcast, launched the NTD Business show, and produced documentary reports on pointed issues. 

The highlight of Paul’s time in the field was his coverage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Paul Greaney

Chinese Leader Hates It When ‘Human Rights’ Is Raised: Col. Grant Newsham on Trump’s China Visit

Man Convicted of $1 Billion Medicare Fraud in Florida

Retail Sales Rose for 3rd Straight Month in April

Former Spirit Airlines Workers Sue for Pay, Benefits

Bessent: China Needs Hormuz Strait Open More Than US

Victoria Friedman is a UK-based reporter covering a wide range of national stories.

Victoria Friedman

World News

Middle East

Israel–Hamas War

Netanyahu Considers Suing New York Times Over Column Alleging Rape of Palestinian Prisoners

Russia Unleashes Heaviest Wartime Drone Assault on Ukraine

Stefania Cox is an NTD News anchor and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Stefania anchors "NTD Newsroom," and co-anchors "NTD News Today" weekdays at 10:00 am ET.

Stefania Cox

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 15)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 14)

Kevin Hogan is an NTD News data reporter and national correspondent based at the network's global headquarters in New York City. Kevin covers breaking news, as well as U.S. and global current events. He conveys the news through data visualizations and investigates pressing issues.

Kevin Hogan

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 13)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 12)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 11)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 8)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 7)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 6)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 5)

NTD News Today Full Broadcast (May 4)

Fast, compelling, first-hand news from China. China in Focus airs Monday–Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

China in Focus

China Sends Warships to Pacific Drill as Tensions With Japan Rise

Reuters is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages.

Reuters

We present news that is truthful and based on facts, outside of the political fog. Instead of focusing on the negative things happening around us, our mission is to give our viewers a good morning with empathetic and uplifting stories. Our aim is to provide an antidote to negativity by shining a light on the best side of people. We speak to inspiring people who positively impact communities, pursue topics that represent our common human values, and will never miss an opportunity to bring you heartwarming stories.

NTD Good Morning

2 US Embassy Personnel Assigned to Cartel Case Killed in Car Accident

The Associated Press is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. 

The Associated Press

US News

Gunman Kills 8 Children, Including 7 of His Own, in Louisiana Mass Shooting

Flora Hua is a reporter based at NTD's global headquarters in New York City, where she covers China news, U.S.-China relations, and human rights issues. Flora primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus."  

Flora Hua

Trump: Seized Iranian Ship May Have ‘A Gift From China’

Joseph Lord is a congressional reporter for The Epoch Times.


Joseph Lord

Aldgra Fredly is a freelance writer covering U.S. and Asia Pacific news for The Epoch Times.

Aldgra Fredly

Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized in Critical Condition: Spokesman

Wildfires Across Georgia and Florida Have Destroyed Nearly 50 Homes and Are Forcing Evacuations

US Warns of China Hacks via Routers, Smart Devices

Juliet Song is an international correspondent exclusively covering China news for NTD. She primarily contributes to NTD's "China in Focus," covering U.S.-China relations, the Chinese regime's human rights abuses, and domestic unrest inside China.

Juliet Song

2 Americans Among Suspected Communist Rebels Killed in Clashes With Troops, Philippine Officials Say

Ryan Morgan is a reporter for The Epoch Times focusing on military and foreign affairs. He was previously a news writer for NTD. 


Ryan Morgan

Mari Otsu is NTD's White House correspondent based in Washington. 

Mari Otsu

Iran

3 US Warships Fend Off Iranian Attacks, Trump Says Ceasefire Still Holds

Health News

3 Dead in Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on Cruise Ship in Atlantic Ocean: WHO

The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 16 to allow it to fire the head of an agency that protects whistleblowers after lower courts said it could not.

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, who heads the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, argues he may only be terminated for misconduct during his fixed-term appointment. Dellinger said a brief emailed notice he received Feb. 7 informed him he was being fired and did not explain why. New administrations routinely fire government officials without providing a reason.

Nominated by President Joe Biden, Dellinger was <a href="https://www.congress.gov/nomination/118th-congress/1233">confirmed</a> 49-47 for a five-year term by the U.S. Senate on Feb. 27, 2024.

The office <a href="https://osc.gov/Agency">describes</a> itself as “an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency” whose “primary mission is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices (PPPs), especially reprisal for whistleblowing.”

The Office of Special Counsel also enforces the Hatch Act, which prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity, and safeguards the employment-related rights of military service members.

As the first appeal to the Supreme Court lodged by the new administration that took power on Jan. 20, the new emergency <a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25536868/dellinger-scotus-emergency-filing.pdf">application</a> in the case of Bessent v. Dellinger has not yet been docketed by the nation’s highest court, which means it does not yet appear in the court’s searchable online database. It may be docketed, or officially accepted for filing, on Feb. 18, the first business day after the Feb. 17 federal holiday.

The application says the government has a “very high” likelihood of succeeding on the merits. The Constitution “empowers the President to remove, at will, the single head of an agency, such as the Special Counsel,” the filing reads.

Federal district courts, like the one that temporarily blocked the removal of Dellinger, do not have the authority “to reinstate principal officers,” according to the filing.

The lower court has “erred in ways that threaten the separation of powers,” the document said, referring to a constitutional doctrine that divides the government into three branches to prevent any single branch from accumulating too much power.

The case goes back to Feb. 10, when Dellinger <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297.1.0_1.pdf">sued</a> in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He argued he “has a clear entitlement to remain in his office” for his full five-year term and that the president may remove him only for “inefficiency, neglect, or malfeasance in office.”

He said his tenure was guaranteed by Supreme Court precedents, including Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (1935).

Separately, the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris informed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in a Feb. 12 letter that the government is <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/doj-to-ask-supreme-court-to-overturn-80-year-precedent-5809529">seeking</a> to overturn the 80-year-old ruling stating that some federal officials may only be fired for cause. “The Department [DOJ] has concluded that those tenure protections are unconstitutional,” she wrote in the letter.

On Feb. 10, Washington-based U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a temporary administrative stay through Feb. 13 blocking Dellinger’s termination. The next day, the government appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The circuit court <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.41735/gov.uscourts.cadc.41735.01208710252.0.pdf">denied</a> the appeal on Feb. 12, saying it lacked jurisdiction, meaning it did not have legal authority to hear the case.

On Feb. 12, Jackson issued a temporary restraining <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297/gov.uscourts.dcd.277297.14.0_4.pdf">order</a> allowing Dellinger to remain in his position and forbidding the government from denying him “access to the resources or materials of that office” and from recognizing “the authority of any other person as Special Counsel.”

The government failed to justify “the President’s hasty, unexplained action, or … the immediate ejection of the Senate-confirmed Special Counsel while the legal issue is subject to calm and thorough deliberation,” she wrote.

On Feb. 13, the government appealed that order to the D.C. Circuit. On Feb. 15, the circuit court <a href="https://media.cadc.uscourts.gov/orders/docs/2025/02/25-5028LDSD.pdf">denied</a> the appeal in a 2-1 opinion.

The D.C. Circuit’s majority opinion states that even though a temporary restraining order “ordinarily is not an appealable order,” the government requested a hearing on it because it said the order “works an extraordinary harm.”

“The relief requested by the government is a sharp departure from established procedures that balance and protect the interests of litigants, and ensure the orderly consideration of cases before the district court and this court.”

Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas dissented. He wrote that the president “is immune from injunctions directing the performance of his official duties, and Article II of the Constitution grants him the power to remove agency heads.”

Meanwhile, despite the Supreme Court appeal, the case remains pending before Judge Jackson.

On Feb. 15, Judge Jackson ordered Dellinger to file a reply to the government’s opposition to the restraining order by Feb. 20. The government is required to explain why it believes the court should dismiss Dellinger’s lawsuit in a filing that is due Feb. 21. The court will hold a hearing on Feb. 26 regarding Dellinger’s request to upgrade the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction.

The Trump administration has met a series of legal challenges to its policies. Several lower courts have granted temporary restraining orders preventing the administration from taking various actions, such as ending birthright citizenship for children born to noncitizens on U.S. soil, and blocking funding for some medical procedures for transgender-identifying minors.

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the DOJ and Dellinger’s attorneys at Hecker Fink in Washington. No replies were received by publication time.

<em>Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.</em>

<em>From <a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/government-asks-supreme-court-to-permit-firing-of-office-of-special-counsel-chief-5811212">The Epoch Times</a></em>

Latest

Politics

04_Top Stories

Latest Clips

Management

Supreme Court

Matthew Vadum is an award-winning investigative journalist.

Matthew Vadum

02_Second Lead

Executive Branch

Courts

Latest and breaking news, documentaries, movies, and lifestyle content on NTD+.
 
Empower your knowledge and elevate your spirit with NTD+, your go-to destination for truthful news, insightful documentaries, and captivating lifestyle content that enriches your life.