WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda.

The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. That’s when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires.

With a bare majority of five justices, the high court neither granted nor rejected the administration’s plea to immediately remove him. Instead, the court held the request in abeyance, noting that the order expires in just a few days.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has scheduled a Wednesday hearing over whether to extend her order keeping Dellinger in his post. The justices could return to the case depending on what she decides.

Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito sided with the administration, doubting whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. Acknowledging that some presidentially appointed officials have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote that “those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement.”

Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected the administration’s request.

The conservative-dominated court has previously taken a robust view of presidential power,...

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