CNN —
The Supreme Court on Friday dashed President Donald Trump’s plan to immediately fire the head of an independent agency that investigates whistleblower claims, allowing Hampton Dellinger to remain in the job through at least the middle of next week.
By declining to back Trump’s emergency appeal, the conservative court nominally sided with Dellinger, who President Joe Biden appointed in 2024 to lead the Office of Special Counsel for a five-year term but who White House officials fired in a brief email days after Trump returned to power.
The Dellinger appeal was the first to reach the Supreme Court tied to Trump’s whirlwind of activity since returning to the White House last month. A flood of litigation over executive actions, immigration, other firings and Elon Musk’s work for the government are simultaneously making their way through lower courts.
In an unsigned order, the court said it would hold the case on pause until February 26, when a temporary order handed down by a lower court is set to expire. A district court hearing is scheduled to consider whether to extend the pause on Dellinger’s dismissal.
But the order also left unresolved all of the questions posed by the case, meaning the fight will likely be back at the court in short order. Four justices – two liberals and two conservatives – dissented from the decision.
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