Anne Joseph O’Connell quoted by Politico, March 31, 2018
O’Connell said she believes the law does in fact apply to firings and she listed several potential hurdles to mounting a serious legal challenge. Among them: finding somebody who has been injured by a decision made by the acting secretary and convincing a court that the law intended to stop presidents from picking acting secretaries after a firing. Another potential difficulty: figuring out a way to differentiate between a firing and a forced resignation.