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Legal clashes over President Donald Trump’s new executive orders and directives have erupted almost as quickly as the ink dries from his signature Sharpies. Among them is a case from longtime Durham resident Hampton Dellinger.

Dellinger sued Trump and others in his administration last week, three days after he was tossed out of the Office of Special Counsel, the government watchdog agency he had led for nearly a year.

The case highlights the swiftness with which Trump and his team are acting to test the limits of the executive power while also exposing the chaos that slashing the federal workforce and freezing agency funding has created.

According to the lawsuit Dellinger filed in federal district court, his  troubles started after he received an email message at 7:22 p.m. February 7 from Sergio Gor, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, with only two sentences:  “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Special Counsel of the US Office of Special Counsel is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service.”

Days later, a federal judge ordered that Dellinger be temporarily reinstated pending a February 26 hearing. Trump appealed. And on Saturday night, a federal appellate panel issued a 2-1 ruling in Dellinger’s favor—setting the stage for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the scope of civil service protections granted by Congress even before the substance of the case is argued.

As Dellinger’s suit wends through court, the “purported termination” has “sown confusion” about his authority to lead the office and also jeopardized the agency’s ability to play a crucial investigative and oversight role, according to the lawsuit.

“The recent spate of terminations of protected civil service employees under the new presidential administration has created controversies, both about the lawfulness of these actions and about potential retaliation against whistleblowers,” Dellinger’s suit states.

Dellinger is the son of the late Walter Dellinger, a noted constitutional scholar who served as acting U.S. Solicitor General from 1996 to 1997 and head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in the administration of President Bill Clinton.

The younger Dellinger has worked in both private practice and state government, including a stint as a deputy attorney general in North Carolina and providing counsel to former Gov. Mike Easley. He also considered running for political office several times and has provided legal analysis for a variety of media organizations.

Dellinger told The Assembly last week he is limited in what he can say publicly about his case while it remains unresolved. “The President’s effort to try to stop me from being an independent government watchdog is wrong and it’s unlawful,” Dellinger said in an email.

He was sworn in to lead the office that investigates whistleblower complaints on March 6, 2024. The term was supposed to last five years–unless the president finds “inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance,” according to a decades-old law. No such activity was alleged in the succinct termination email that Dellinger received, according to his suit.

“Back when I was working in North Carolina state government, I could never have imagined one day personally suing a President,” Dellinger told The Assembly. “But now I’m in a position where my No. 1 job is to protect federal employees when they are mistreated, particularly when they blow the whistle on wrongdoing. And I can’t protect others from retaliation when I’m being retaliated against for simply doing my job.”

—Anne Blythe

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Jackson Four

In the first month since the presidential inauguration, Attorney General Jeff Jackson has joined four multi-state lawsuits against the Trump administration.

That includes:

“As Attorney General, my role is straightforward,” Jackson said in a news release about the birthright citizenship lawsuit. “[T]o defend the Constitution. That’s why I’ve joined this lawsuit, to uphold the rule of law and preserve the rights that have defined our nation for generations.”

Those activities prompted three Republican state senators to introduce a bill on February 5 attempting to limit Jackson’s power to participate in litigation “that would result in the invalidation of any executive order issued by the president.” House members filed a companion bill last week.

These proposals come after the Republican-led General Assembly passed legislation late last year that tried to clip the Democratic attorney general’s wings, barring him from taking legal positions in court that differ from the legislature’s posture.

—Anne Blythe

A Soiled Situation in Forsyth

When Edward Jeffrey Jones Jr. won a seat on Forsyth County’s Soil and Water Conservation District’s Board of Supervisors, few paid notice. 

Until now. 

Last week, Jones, 55, was indicted on three counts of election fraud. The indictments allege that he failed to disclose he was a convicted felon on a form he filled out to run for office, that he filed to run for office in Forsyth while living in Davie County and that he voted early in Forsyth despite that. Jones, a registered sex offender, was also charged with failure to notify the sheriff’s office when he moved from Davie to Forsyth in 2023. Jones became a registered sex offender after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old when he was 31 in 2001, according to the N.C. Sex Offender Registry. 

A separate indictment also alleges that he is a habitual offender and has been convicted of three separate felonies—armed robbery and manufacturing and distributing heroin, both out of New Jersey, and the failure to register charge. 

But even as he sits in the Forsyth County Jail now under a $100,000 bond, he is still technically a Forsyth County Soil and Water District supervisor. The board can only remove him if he doesn’t attend meetings or is accused of committing a wrongdoing while carrying out his duties, George Teague, former chair of the state soil and water conservation commission, told the Winston-Salem Journal. 

Jones had regularly attended board meetings before his arrest last week.

District Attorney Jim O’Neill said at a news conference that he was frustrated Jones allegedly lied on his candidate’s form: “It is a slap in the face for the rest of us that are doing what we’re supposed to do when we fill out those candidacy claims.”

As a candidate last fall, Jones didn’t claim any experience for the role and made some bizarre claims to Journal reporters, including stating that his goal for running for office was to share “the message of God with the world.” He told a reporter in an email that he had been shot 37 times and was in a coma for eight years. (According to the sex offender registry, Jones has several gunshot scars but there’s nothing that corroborates his claim he was in a coma.)  He referred to himself as “Rev. Jones,” and claimed he ran an “All Lives Matter” organization to keep young people off the street. He said that he started a youth group that will make young people do 10 push-ups if they even thought about drugs. Jones never provided any evidence to back up his claims. 

He also told news station WXII that he had a rap career before committing to his faith and added that if he were elected, he would ensure that projects were done on time. 

“We want to keep everything solved, the problems solved at all times, constantly working on the problem,” he told the station. 

For now, Jones won’t be working on any problems in the near future as long as he remains in jail and cannot pay his bond. He is scheduled to appear in court on February 28 on the sex-offender charge and on March 3 on the election fraud charges.  

—Michael Hewlett

Around The State

Reflecting on The Assembly’s 4th Birthday

As we end our fourth year, we’re working to become your essential news subscription. Here’s how.

How North Carolina Got a Trump-Backed Voting Chief

Republicans have wanted to regain control of the state election apparatus for years. With state Auditor Dave Boliek, they’ve found their man.

Rumors, Fear Spread as N.C. Immigrants Brace for ICE Deportations

Calls to a Durham-based hotline spiked, and schools and churches scrambled to communicate with families as President Trump’s deportation push began.

Rev. Nelson Johnson: A Legacy Beyond Tragedy

Once called “the most dangerous man in Greensboro,” Nelson Johnson survived the Greensboro Massacre and inspired generations.

The Assembly is a digital magazine covering power and place in North Carolina. Sent this by a friend? Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Anne Blythe, a former reporter for The News & Observer, has reported on courts, criminal justice, and an array of topics in North Carolina for more than three decades.

Michael Hewlett is a courts and law reporter for The Assembly. He was previously a legal affairs reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal and has won two Henry Lee Weathers Freedom of Information Awards.