A US federal judge held Saturday that President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is unconstitutional. The Special Counsel’s Office protects the merit system in the federal civil service.

The judge held that the Dellinger’s removal was not within Trump’s power and violated the removal conditions set out in 5 U.S.C. § 1211(b). The statute mandates, “The Special Counsel may be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The court considered the fact that Dellinger’s termination email merely announced that he had been terminated and failed to provide justification according to § 1211.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that the special counsel’s five-year term and the termination requirements are unconstitutional, citing that a president should be able to terminate an employee at will because he should have “unrestricted control over who should assist him in discharging his responsibilities.” The DOJ relied upon previous rulings to draw parallels to situations where the courts enabled the president to remove single “top figure” agents such as “the single heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.”

However, the judge held that the role of the OSC was distinctly different from the executive bodies discussed in the precedent the defendants relied upon. Notably, the OSC is not a body capable of making and executing executive functions alone. The judge determined: “While the OSC is bound to implement the statutory directives imposed by Congress, it cannot fairly be likened to a typical administrative agency charged with implementing those directives in accordance with Presidential policy and priorities.”

The plaintiff was awarded a permanent injunction keeping him in his position.

The case comes amid a national discussion surrounding the controversial “unitary executive” Constitutional theory, which holds that Congress cannot restrain the President’s Constitutional powers. This theory is a linchpin of Project 2025, a sweeping plan formulated by Conservative intellectuals.