The D.C. Circuit federal appeals court has vacated the lower court’s effort to block President Trump from firing Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel that enforces civil service protections for federal employees. In the interim, Dellinger and other Biden-appointed officials, using the reprieves from termination they’ve been given by Obama-appointed judges, have continued to put up roadblocks to Trump’s effort to pare back the administrative state.
We have extensively covered the litigation over the president’s firing of Special Counsel Dellinger. (See Monday’s post, citing prior posts.) Last night, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (a Bush-41 appointee, an Obama appointee, and a Trump appointee) issued a temporary stay that nullifies Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s reinstatement of Dellinger while the Trump administration’s appeal of the case is pending. The panel also fast-tracked the appeal so that it will be fully submitted and ready to be argued shortly after April 11 (the Trump Justice Department’s brief is due in about two weeks, on March 21).
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