The Supreme Court declined to issue an immediate ruling on whether President Donald Trump has the authority to remove Hampton Dellinger, the head of a federal whistleblower protection office, delaying a final decision in an ongoing legal battle tied to the administration’s government reform efforts.
In a Friday decision, the Court chose to leave in place a lower court ruling that reinstated Dellinger after Trump attempted to dismiss him.
The ruling will remain in effect until at least Wednesday when the lower court’s order expires, according to The Hill.
The move is the latest in a series of judicial challenges to the administration’s efforts to restructure federal agencies and personnel.
Dellinger, a Biden-era appointee, leads the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency tasked with investigating government misconduct and protecting whistleblowers.
His reinstatement was temporarily ordered by a federal judge after he contested his firing by the Trump administration on Feb. 7.
The Supreme Court’s decision revealed ideological divisions among its members.
Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson signaled they would have rejected the administration’s request outright. Meanwhile, conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented, arguing that Trump should have the authority to remove Dellinger without judicial interference.
Gorsuch expressed concern that a federal judge was overstepping constitutional boundaries by mandating the president to recognize and collaborate with an official he had dismissed.
“A federal judge effectively commanded the president and other executive branch officials to recognize and work with someone whom the president sought to remove from office,” he wrote, according to NBC News.
The Trump administration has faced multiple legal challenges over its push to remove federal employees and alter the structure of government agencies.
Officials within the administration have expressed frustration over what they perceive as judicial overreach in blocking their personnel and policy decisions. This includes efforts to cut funding to certain programs and reorganize agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
The legal dispute over Dellinger’s removal revolves around the constitutional principle of separation of powers.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris argued that the lower court’s ruling encroaches on presidential authority.
“When a district court crosses a constitutional red line and purports to bar the president from replacing an agency head he does not want to entrust with executive power — potentially for up to a month — this Court can and should intervene,” Harris stated in a filing with the Supreme Court, per The Western Journal.
Dellinger’s legal team countered, asserting that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to intervene at this stage.
Joshua Matz, Dellinger’s attorney, maintained that allowing an emergency ruling would disrupt judicial processes and create a precedent for frequent, politically charged cases reaching the highest court at an accelerated pace.
“That rule protects core judicial interests in orderly administration and sound deliberation; it also avoids needless inter-branch conflict and premature escalation of politically fraught disputes,” Matz wrote in his response to the Court.
“To accept [the administration’s] theory and grant its request for relief would be to invite more of the same: a rocket docket straight to this Court, even as high-stakes emergency litigation proliferates across the country.”
Harris, however, pushed back against this argument, stating that the judiciary should not dictate executive branch decisions through temporary restraining orders.
“The Supreme Court should not allow the judiciary to govern by temporary restraining order and supplant the judicial accountability the Constitution ordains,” she argued, per NBC News.
The case marks just one of several lawsuits likely to arise as the administration moves forward with its efforts to reshape federal governance.
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