WASHINGTON, Feb 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Friday 
temporarily blocked a request from Donald Trump to allow him to fire the head 
of a whistleblower protection agency, weighing in on the president's 
executive actions for the first time since his inauguration.

The decision, however, noted that the court could return to the demand next 
week, when a trial judge's temporary restraining order keeping the watchdog 
official in office was due to expire.

"The application to vacate the order... is held in abeyance until February 
26, when the TRO is set to expire," the unsigned Supreme Court decision said.

The Trump administration had asked the Supreme Court to allow the president 
to fire Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel.

It was Trump's first appeal to the top court since returning to office and 
issuing a flurry of contested executive orders.

The White House fired Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, on 
February 7 but the lawyer sued the president and a district court ordered he 
be reinstated.

The US Court of Appeals had rejected the Trump administration's request to 
overrule the decision.

The emergency appeal filed to the Supreme Court on Sunday branded this an 
"unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrants immediate 
relief."

The Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices, is primed 
to play a significant role in what some experts are suggesting is a looming 
constitutional crisis as the president tests the limits of his executive 
power.

Trump, who began his second term last month, has launched a campaign led by 
one of his top donors, Elon Musk, to downsize or dismantle swaths of the US 
government.