US Supreme Court upholds pause on Trump firing watchdog head

The US Supreme Court on Friday
temporarily blocked a request from Donald Trump to allow him to fire the head
of a whistleblower protection agency, weighing in on the president’s
executive actions for the first time since his inauguration.

The decision, however, noted that the court could return to the demand next
week, when a trial judge’s temporary restraining order keeping the watchdog
official in office was due to expire.

“The application to vacate the order… is held in abeyance until February
26, when the TRO is set to expire,” the unsigned Supreme Court decision said.

The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to allow the president
to fire Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel.

It was Trump’s first appeal to the top court since returning to office and
issuing a flurry of contested executive orders.

The White House fired Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, on
February 7 but the lawyer sued the president and a district court ordered he
be reinstated.

The US Court of Appeals had rejected the Trump administration’s request to
overrule the decision.

The emergency appeal filed to the Supreme Court on Sunday branded this an
“unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrants immediate
relief.”

The Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices, is primed
to play a significant role in what some experts are suggesting is a looming
constitutional crisis as the president tests the limits of his executive
power.

Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a campaign led by
one of his top donors, Elon Musk, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US
government. (BSS/AFP)