Portrait of Hampton Dellinger, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy under Joe Biden/ Wikimedia Commons
Fired Biden holdover Hampton Dellinger can keep his job for now after the US Supreme Court on Friday evening, in a 5-page order, declined to immediately act on President Trump’s emergency application.
President Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel (not to be confused with a special counsel hired as a federal prosecutor) a couple of weeks ago.
Shortly after the firing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson sided with Hampton Dellinger, issued an administrative stay, and allowed him to keep his job.
Hampton Dellinger gets to keep his job for now after the Supreme Court declined to immediately act because the TRO is expiring in a few days (February 26).
The Supreme Court is holding Trump’s emergency request “in abeyance”, which means that the court could make a decision at a later date.
Emboldened by the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene, Hampton Dellinger is now attacking President Trump’s decision to terminate “probationary” employees.
In a statement released on Monday, Hampton Dellinger said some of Trump’s firings of probationary employees appear to be illegal.
“Last Friday, Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger filed initial requests to “stay,” or pause, the apparently impermissible terminations of six probationary employees across various executive branch agencies. The requests, filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), seek a 45-day stay of the terminations because there are reasonable grounds to believe that agencies engaged in prohibited personnel practices (PPPs) under 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(12) by terminating the employees in violation of federal laws and regulations governing probationary terminations and reductions in force,” Hampton Dellinger’s office said.
“Since the Civil Service Reform Act was passed in 1978, the merit system principles have guided how federal government agencies hire, manage, and, if necessary, remove federal employees. These principles establish that all federal employees, including those in a probationary status, should be evaluated based on individual performance,” Dellinger said.
Dellinger added: “Firing probationary employees without individualized cause appears contrary to a reasonable reading of the law, particularly the provisions establishing rules for reductions in force. Because Congress has directed that OSC ‘shall’ protect government employees from PPPs, I believe I have a responsibility to request a stay of these actions while my agency continues to investigate further the apparent violation of federal personnel laws.”
Hampton DELLINGER, the federal ethics watchdog who Trump has been blocked from firing by a federal court, rules some of the terminations of “probationary” employees appear to be illegal. https://t.co/OtExRlUqkP pic.twitter.com/jjctah7jhE
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) February 24, 2025
The post Emboldened by Supreme Court’s Refusal to Act, Fired Biden Holdover Reinstated by Obama Judge Rules Some of Trump’s Firings of “Probationary” Employees Are Illegal appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.