# Storch v. Hegseth **Storch v. Hegseth** (No. 1:25-cv-00415, D.D.C.) is the suit brought by eight of the inspectors general removed in the overnight firings of January 24, 2025 — led by Robert Storch, the Senate-confirmed IG of the [[Department of Defense]] — challenging their dismissals under the Inspector General Act, which since the 2022 Securing Inspector General Independence Act requires the President to give both chambers of Congress 30 days' written notice and a case-specific, substantive rationale before removing an IG. The firings had been delivered by e-mail citing "changing priorities," with neither. On **September 24, 2025**, Judge [[Ana Reyes]] ruled that the removals were **unlawful** — the President had violated the notice-and-rationale requirement — but **declined to reinstate** the plaintiffs, holding that they had not shown irreparable harm because the President could lawfully re-fire them after giving the required 30 days' notice. The result is the vault's cleanest example of a violation declared but unremedied: the statute was found to have been broken, and nothing about the outcome changed. The vault has recorded no appellate disposition as of September 2026. The case is the litigation spine of [[Inspectors General]] and the "practice" column of the removal track in the [[Inspector General Oversight Tree]]. ## See Also - [[Inspector General Oversight Tree]] - [[Inspectors General]] - [[Inspector General]] - [[Ana Reyes]] - [[Trump v. Slaughter]]