Judge: Trump’s firing of watchdog agency chief illegal

Old_Joe

Following are excerpts from a current report in The Guardian:

Trump’s firing of watchdog agency chief illegal and would give ‘license to bully officials’, judge rules

A US judge on Saturday declared president Donald Trump’s firing of the head of a federal watchdog agency illegal in an early test of the scope of presidential power likely to be decided at the US supreme court. US district judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington had previously ruled that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel who is responsible for protecting whistleblowers, could remain in his post pending a ruling.

Jackson said in her ruling on Saturday that upholding Trump’s ability to fire Dellinger would give him “a constitutional license to bully officials in the executive branch into doing his will”.

The justice department filed a notice late on Saturday saying it was appealing against Berman’s ruling to the US court of appeals for the district of Columbia. Dellinger, who was appointed by Democratic president Joe Biden and approved by the Senate to a five-year term last year, said in an email to Reuters he was “grateful to see the court confirm the importance and legality of the job protections Congress afforded my position”.

He added his “efforts to protect federal employees generally, and whistleblowers in particular, from unlawful treatment will continue”. Jackson, who was named to the bench by president Barack Obama, rejected the contention that the statute is unconstitutional, saying the special counsel’s job is to review unethical or unlawful practices directed at federal civil servants and help whistleblowers act without suffering reprisals.

“It would be ironic, to say the least, and inimical to the ends furthered by the statute if the special counsel himself could be chilled in his work by fear of arbitrary or partisan removal,” Jackson wrote.

Jackson said her ruling was “extremely narrow” and did not diminish Trump’s powers. “This is the only single-headed agency left for the courts to consider, and it is unlike any of them,” she wrote.

Crash

The Orange Russian Agent will simply give his attention to something else he can take apart. The damage to this country will take decades to reconstitute. "And the beat goes on." ... "And the coup goes on." Repugnants in Congress are traitorous by their silent compliance.