Colorized photo of Abraham Lincoln taken November, 1863.
(M. Price? Alexander Gardner. Public Domain; Wikimedia Commons)
Beginning with the law, continued: "Contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity."
Judges have the power to hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions that the judges find to be proven by the evidence before them to be "contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity." The power to do this is given to them by Congress in the Administrative Procedure Act, or APA.
The Inspectors General. You have undoubtedly heard about the firing of some 18 Inspectors General whose job it was to keep an eye on the legality of their agencies' conduct. Now they are gone and they do not keep an eye on things. On the same afternoon of the same day that this post was published, I learned that on this date several or all of the Inspectors General filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Although I have not had time to review their complaint, it appears that they are alleging that the law required 30 day notice to Congress that they were going to be fired and that this did not happen, among other failures to comply with the law.
As additional information comes to light, and after I complete my review of the Court File on PACER, I will add a Postscript concerning this new lawsuit as necessary.
In the meantime, one person is often lumped in with the IGs by the Press, and that is the head of the Office of Special Counsel, but he is neither an Inspector General or a Special Counsel like Jack Smith was. His name is Hampton Dellinger.
Briefly, the Office of Special Counsel exists to protect whistleblowers by enforcing the laws protecting them, and to enforce the Hatch Act by pointing out prohibited political activity by federal employees, and, finally, to resolve complaints from veterans who claim discrimination after they are discharged from military service to the United States. (You can see at a glance why he was dismissed, I think.)
According to the law setting up the Office of Special Counsel, the "Special Counsel may be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office." Apparently the EMail sent only last Friday from the White House's Director of "the Presidential Personnel Office" (who gave them any authority in the matter?) did not recite any of these reasons, even if it could have.
The EMail only said, basically, "You're fired," reminiscent of a line once written for entertainment in a TV show called The Apprentice.
On Monday of this week, Hampton Dellinger filed a lawsuit challenging his purported firing. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson entered a Temporary Restraining Order barring the firing until she can decide the issue at a full hearing. It is noteworthy that before Judge Jackson ruled, she asked the government lawyer, one Madeline McMahon, if the government would pause the firing until Judge Jackson could sort things out. Ms. McMahon told the judge that she did not have the government's authority to do that.
Mr. Dellinger's case presents a greater issue than his own independence, as important as that is. His case holds up the belief central to all the actions of the people who are currently in charge of the United States, or think that they are. Their core belief is that they can do anything they want with the Executive Branch in their pocket. In their minds, there is no Congress and no Supreme Court and nothing else. Only them. It is fair to say that this is their theory of Unitary Executive in action.
The courts may decide in individual cases whether a given agency action is unlawful and should be set aside because, perhaps among other things, it is "contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity." With our own eyes and ears, you and I have seen and heard enough by now to decide that this action is action against the Constitution.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2025 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved. Interested in many things including Claims and Bad Faith Law? Sign up for a free subscription to my Substack newsletter. I published an earlier article on this subject on Substack on Lincoln's Birthday before the news came out of the new lawsuit filed by the Inspectors General.
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