The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a request by the Trump administration to lift an order by a federal judge that had instructed it to temporarily reinstate Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel. In a one-sentence order on Thursday afternoon, the justices threw out the plea as moot – that is, no longer a live controversy. The order came one day after a federal appeals court granted a motion by the Trump administration to put a later ruling in Dellinger’s favor by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on hold while the government’s appeal continues.
In a statement on Thursday, Dellinger indicated that he was ending his challenge to his firing, writing, “my time as Special Counsel … is now over.”
The Office of Special Counsel is an independent federal agency tasked with (among other things) protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. Dellinger was appointed to serve a five-year term in 2024.
Dellinger was fired from his job in a Feb. 7 email that did not specify the reason for his dismissal. Dellinger went to federal court in Washington, D.C., where Jackson on Feb. 12 issued a temporary restraining order that restored him as the head of the OSC until Feb. 26.
The Trump administration then went to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to block Jackson’s order. But the Supreme Court declined to do so, instead putting the government’s request on hold (and leaving Dellinger as the head of the OSC) until Feb. 26.
Jackson extended the temporary restraining order until March 1, when she issued a final decision in which she concluded that the Trump administration violated the law when it fired Dellinger. She issued an order recognizing Dellinger as the head of the OSC and prohibited the government from interfering with his work in that role.
The Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which on Wednesday agreed to pause Jackson’s March 1 order while the appeal continues. A three-judge panel consisting of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson (appointed by George H.W. Bush), Patricia Millett (appointed by Barack Obama), and Justin Walker (appointed by Donald Trump) wrote that its order “gives effect to the removal of” Dellinger “from his position as” special counsel. The D.C. Circuit also fast-tracked the government’s appeal, setting a briefing schedule that will be completed on April 11.
With the temporary restraining order that the government had sought to block no longer in effect, the justices on Thursday dismissed the government’s request.
In his statement on March 6, Dellinger indicated that he believed that the D.C. Circuit’s order was wrong, but that his “odds of ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long” and he would “abide by it. That’s what Americans do.”
This post is also published on SCOTUSblog.
