Obama-appointed judge blocks Trump from terminating head of whistleblower protection office

A federal judge ruled that President Trump's effort to remove the head of whistleblower protection office was unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama-appointed judge, ruled that Trump's firing of Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, was unlawful. 

Dellinger sued Trump in February after his firing.

“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. “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.”

The case is expected to move to the Supreme Court.