The Supreme Court won’t let Donald Trump remove an ethics watchdog until at least next week as the president and Elon Musk try to gut federal agencies and fire thousands of workers.
Friday’s split decision marked the first of what is expected to be many rulings from the nation’s high court involving the administration’s sledgehammer decision-making, which is facing an avalanche of lawsuits alleging an unconstitutional abuse of power.
Hampton Dellinger, the top official at the independent U.S. agency that protects government whistleblowers and enforces ethics rules, sued the administration earlier this month after he received an email from the president simply stating that his role is “terminated, effective immediately.”
Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, is mounting one of at least three legal challenges from government officials testing the president’s authority to oust the heads of independent agencies.
The Trump administration appealed to the Supreme Court after an appeals court decision on February 15 rejected Trump’s request to override a lower-court order that blocked him from firing Dellinger, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden.
The Supreme Court’s brief and unusual ruling on Friday did not grant or deny the relief requested by the Trump administration. Instead, the justices held Trump’s request “in abeyance” — they will let the case play out in the lower court before making a decision. A hearing in that court is scheduled for February...
Legislators in Sacramento, California, are mulling over one of the most (if not the most) troubling state and local tax bills of the past decade. Senate Bill (SB) 799, introduced earlier this year...