Although the judge found the president did not comply with a 30-day notice rule, she said reinstating the inspectors general would be ‘extraordinary.’
A federal judge on Sept. 24 upheld President Donald Trump’s decision to fire eight former inspectors general, despite opining that it violated a provision in the law that requires the president to give notice of the firing or provide a rationale.
Federal Judge Ana C. Reyes wrote that the inspectors general, who were fired in February, did not show “irreparable harm” with their alleged injury of not being able to perform their duties for 30 days—corresponding to the period of notice that the statute governing their removal demands. As such, despite finding that Trump did not comply with this procedural notice requirement, the judiciary can’t reinstate the inspectors general, Judge Reyes wrote, describing the reinstatement as an “extraordinary remedy.”
It’s a “well-established rule that the Government has traditionally been granted the widest latitude in the dispatch of its own internal affairs,” the court wrote, adding that the “IGs are officials in the Executive Branch, and the President’s authority to remove IGs is undisputed.”
The Lawsuit
The eight plaintiffs, who are nonpartisan watchdogs in federal agencies such