“My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that [the Office of Special Counsel] should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and be protected from retaliation,” Dellinger said. “Now I will look to make a difference—as an attorney, a North Carolinian, and an American—in other ways.”
Former special counsel Hampton Dellinger has announced that he will drop a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Trump administration, which some had expected to serve as a critical test of the president’s power.
According to CNN, Dellinger’s case had “the potential of rewriting the law around Congressionally approved protections for the federal civil service.” However, with Dellinger now requesting a dismissal, the lawsuit will not continue and cannot be escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dellinger indicated that he decided to drop his claim after a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, which terminated the special counsel shortly after Trump took office.
“This new ruling means that [the Office of Special Counsel] will be run by someone totally beholden to the President for the months that would pass before I could get a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court,” Dellinger said in a statement. “I think the circuit judges erred badly because their willingness to sign off on my ouster—even if presented as possibly temporary—immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position, a vital protection that has been accepted for nearly fifty years.”
Dellinger said that his decision to request a dismissal was, in part, motivated by expectations that the Supreme Court would ultimately rule against him.
“Given the circuit court’s ruling, I think my odds of ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long,” he said. “Meanwhile, the harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable.”
CNN notes that, in his capacity as special counsel, Dellinger oversaw investigations into worker complaints submitted across the federal government and its many agencies. In his recent weeks, Dellinger argued that the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary workers was unlawful.
Prior to his termination, Dellinger’s office helped thousands of Department of Agriculture workers return to their jobs.
“My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that [the Office of Special Counsel] should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and be protected from retaliation,” Dellinger said. “Now I will look to make a difference—as an attorney, a North Carolinian, and an American—in other ways.”
Dellinger told National Public Radio’s All Things Considered that the decision to drop the lawsuit was “very hard.”
“I would be before the board that could put these hundreds of thousands of probationary employees back on the job,” he told N.P.R. “And so it was hard to start the suit. It was very hard to stop it. I’m glad I tried.”
Sources
Federal watchdog removed by Trump drops his case, citing long odds of winning at Supreme Court
Former government watchdog on his decision to end legal fight challenging his firing
Top government watchdog drops lawsuit challenging his termination by Trump
Join the conversation!