- Dellinger can stay in office until at least Saturday, she says
- Trump lawyer says it underscores need for Supreme Court action
A federal judge extended a temporary order blocking President
US District Judge
Jackson said the case is in a “very unusual posture” because Trump has already asked the Supreme Court to lift her earlier order. The Supreme Court last week deferred acting on Trump’s request but didn’t reject it outright.
The Trump administration’s top courtroom lawyer, acting Solicitor General
“The harms to the executive branch from the district court’s TRO have become even more concrete,” Harris said.
During a hearing Wednesday, Jackson asked a Justice Department lawyer why a president should be permitted to fire the head of the whistleblower agency without cause, given that the position was created by Congress specifically to prevent that from happening and therefore ensure accountability and independence.
The judge said that if the position is “unsatisfactory to the current president, isn’t the remedy to marshal congressional support to change it as opposed to disregard it?”
The judge issued her earlier order after ruling that Dellinger’s firing “plainly” went against US law. The Trump administration didn’t provide any reason for his firing, she said, even though the law requires that the person in that position could only be removed “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
(Updates with Trump Supreme Court filing in fourth and fifth paragraphs.)
--With assistance from
To contact the reporter on this story:
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman, Sara Forden
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