Appeals court swats down Obama judge, lets Trump fire Biden official

A federal appeals court sided with President Donald Trump after he was sued by the former head of the Office of Special Counsel.

Hampton Dellinger was appointed by former President Joe Biden to a five-year term in March 2024. He was fired by Trump last month and, after battling with D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who ruled the firing was “unlawful,” the Trump administration won a temporary victory on appeal.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia granted a motion to stay the order that would have reinstated Dellinger, who is expected to appeal the ruling.

Major win for President Trump:

The DC Circuit stays Obama DC Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order reinstating the Special Counsel against President Trump’s will.

In other words:

Hampton Dellinger, You’re Fired! pic.twitter.com/6onmY2OoSo

— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) March 5, 2025

The Obama-era Judge Jackson had ruled that Dellinger’s termination was not legal and the court “finds that the elimination of the restrictions on plaintiff’s removal would be fatal to the defining and essential feature of the Office of Special Counsel as it was conceived by Congress and signed into law by the President: its independence. ”

“The Court concludes that they must stand,” the judge ruled.

3/ Unsurprisingly, Judge order Dellinger’s removal was unlawful & that Article II did not provide the executive to fire him. She also entered a declaratory judgment declaring firing illegal and that he remained Special Counsel & enjoining all defendants but Trump. pic.twitter.com/X4pv8QERJr

— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) March 2, 2025

Dellinger sued after his firing, arguing that federal law states special counsels can only be terminated by the president “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance of office.”

According to Fox News:

Earlier in February, liberal Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to outright deny the administration’s request to approve the firing.

Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissented, saying the lower court overstepped. They also cast doubt on whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. While acknowledging that some officials appointed by the president have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote in his opinion that “those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement.”

In the unanimous order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the three-judge panel said the Trump administration had “satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.”

“This order gives effect to the removal of appellee [Dellinger] from his position as Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel,” they noted.

Social media reactions seemed to agree that Dellinger needs to go.

Hampton Dellinger is a longtime Democratic Party aide, activist, and candidate with a history of making anti-Trump remarks. His stated political views are hostile to the president’s agenda–which is why he is attempting to undo Trump’s plan to reduce the federal workforce: pic.twitter.com/HsJyFl8NHT

— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) March 3, 2025

Admin should act quick to install someone in his position to immediately reverse everything Dellinger has done and sent to the review board. https://t.co/cuucTsnQRl

— EJ (@Ejmiller25) March 5, 2025

One less crooked bureaucrat

— Cash Loren (@CashLorenShow) March 5, 2025

Senior Staff Writer
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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