Appeals court allows removal of watchdog agency head as legal battle rages over Trump firing

The Office of Special Counsel is not assigned responsibilities that include furthering the administration’s agenda,

Jackson wrote in her ruling

Because OSC is an executive branch agency that exercises quintessentially executive functions, the President’s actions were consistent with recent Supreme Court precedent,

the attorneys wrote in court filings

The Special Counsel’s job is to look into and expose unethical or unlawful practices directed at federal civil servants, and to help ensure that whistleblowers who disclose fraud, waste, and abuse on the part of government agencies can do so without suffering reprisals,

Jackson wrote in her Saturday ruling

That email made no attempt to comply with the Special Counsel’s for-cause removal protection,

Dellinger’s lawsuit said

The Clerk is directed to calendar this case for oral argument this term on the first appropriate date following the completion of briefing,

the panel wrote

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

This order gives effect to the removal of appellee from his position as Special Counsel of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel,

the appeals court said in its order Wednesday

Deepak Gupta (attorney)american attorney

This current executive is taking out for a spin the most extreme version of this theory, which is that regardless of the statutes that Congress has passed the president has untrammeled authority to remove officials, an absolute power of removal,

Gupta said

Barack Obamapresident

Just saying that the president alone has the removal power begs the question of whether his exercise of that power can be subject to standards set by Congress,

said Howell, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama

You’re applying the law as is,

Graver told her

Deepak Gupta (attorney)american attorney

Congress is elected too, ... We don’t have an elected king. Congress makes the law. The president enforces those laws."

said Deepak Gupta, arguing for Wilcox

Without such power … the buck stops with someone else,

Newman said

The President thus lacks the power to remove Harris from office at will. Because the President did not indicate that he sought to remove Harris for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office, his attempt to terminate her was unlawful and exceeded the scope of his authority,

Contreras wrote Tuesday in a 35-page ruling