EMERGENCY APPEAL: President Trump Heads to Supreme Court To Allow Firing of Biden Appointee

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President Donald Trump is heading to the Supreme Court for the first time in his second term, using an emergency appeal to call on the justices to let him fire the Biden appointed  head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.

The administration argues for vacating a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued on February 12, 2025, by the district court, which prevents the President from removing Hampton Dellinger as Special Counsel of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), an executive agency.

It arrives at a moment when Trump is attempting to remove federal officials as is within his executive powers. The President has absolute and unqualified authority to fire officers–and in fact must to protect our democracy.

Imagine not allowing a CEO to fire his employees.

The case before the Supreme Court, Bessent v. Dellinger, sought to block the Trump administration from firing a subordinate — the Special Counsel heading up the Office of Special Counsel. This Court should not allow district courts to enjoin the President’s exercise of his conclusive Article II powers and then tell the President to come back in two weeks or a month if he wants to appeal. The United States respectfully asks that this Court vacate the district court’s unprecedented order and restore the executive power to the person whom the American people elected to exercise all of it—the President.

At the center of the dispute is Hampton Dellinger, who President Joe Biden named in 2023 to lead the Office of Special Counsel for a five-year term. He was confirmed by the Senate early last year.

The Office of Special Counsel  handles allegations of whistleblower retaliation and is an independent agency. Created during the Carter administration, Congress made clear the special counsel could be removed by the president.

Professor Margot Cleveland: If you read nothing else from Trump Administration’s brief to SCOTUS re district court’s order that fired Special Counsel be reinstated, read passage–I’ve literally re-read it five times because it is so perfectly brutal.

The case:



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