WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday turned down President Trump’s appeal on his effort to fire an agency official.
Instead, the justices said they would weigh in on the matter only after a judge rules next week on whether the firing was legal.
The decision is a small and temporary setback for Trump and his lawyers,
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett agreed to put off a decision for now.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have rejected Trump’s appeal. Meanwhile, Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted it and required the judge to reconsider her decision that blocked the firing.
Trump’s lawyers may have overplayed their hand by rushing an appeal to the high court on Sunday. They described the temporary halt on firing the head of the small agency that protects whistleblowers as “an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers” that would impose “irreparable harm” on the president.
Last week, a federal judge in Washington issued a temporary restraining order to block the firing of Hampton Dellinger until Feb. 26.
Dellinger was appointed last year to a five-year term to lead the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency created by Congress in 1978 to protect federal employees who report abuse or wrongdoing.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson granted the temporary restraining order and said she would issue a ruling in...
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