Hampton Dellinger, a federal official who President Donald Trump attempted to fire earlier this month, seems very likely to lose a lawsuit challenging that firing … eventually.

But the Trump administration is impatient to make that happen as soon as possible, asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the lower court battle currently underway over the firing. In making this request, the administration is effectively asking the justices to resolve a core question about constitutional separation of powers just weeks after Dellinger filed that lawsuit.

So the case, known as Bessent v. Dellinger, is worth watching not so much because there is much mystery about whether Trump could fire Dellinger — again, the Court is exceedingly likely to rule against Dellinger if forced to decide that question. Instead, the Dellinger case is worth watching as a sign of just how impatient a GOP-controlled Supreme Court is to expand a Republican president’s authority.

Last year, then-President Joe Biden appointed Dellinger as special counsel of the United States, a role that is primarily responsible for investigating unlawful personnel practices against the federal government’s own employees. By law, Dellinger serves a five-year term, and “may be removed by the President only for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”

Nevertheless, a White House official wrote Dellinger on February 7, telling him that he was terminated from his role, effective immediately. Dellinger filed suit, and obtained a court order known as a temporary restraining order (TRO), which allows him to remain in office for now. Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who issued the order, also scheduled a hearing for February 26 to determine whether to issue a more lasting injunction leaving Dellinger in office.

Jackson’s TRO is now before the Supreme Court on its “

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