Defendants sued, saying Habba was illegally appointed.
A federal appeals court ruled on Dec. 1 that Trump administration appointee Alina Habba is disqualified as U.S. attorney for New Jersey.
The new ruling came from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
“It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place,” the court said in a written opinion.
“Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Habba, to the role of Acting U.S. Attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced—yet the citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.”
The administration’s decision to appoint her first assistant U.S. attorney does not make her acting U.S. attorney, “because only the first assistant in place at the time of the vacancy arises automatically assumes the functions and duties of the office under the [Federal Vacancies Reform Act].”
Lawsuits were filed by three New Jersey defendants facing prosecution under Habba. They have alleged that she holds the position unlawfully, and they seek to have their cases dismissed.
President Donald Trump appointed Habba as interim U.S. attorney in March and later submitted her nomination to the Senate. Habba previously served as Trump’s personal attorney.
That nomination was blocked and never came up for a vote. When her term expired after 120 days, a court appointed the next-in-command to fill the role on July 22: first assistant to the U.S. attorney Desiree Grace.
Grace’s appointment would be effective on July 22 or “upon the expiration of 120 days after” the appointment of Habba as interim U.S. attorney, “whichever is later,” according to the July 22 order issued by Judge Renée Marie Bumb of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on July 22 that Habba’s term was supposed to end on July 25, not July 22.
“The district court judges in [New Jersey] are trying to force out [Habba] before her term expires at 11:59 p.m. Friday,” he wrote in the post, referring to July 25. “Their rush reveals what this was always about: a left-wing agenda, not the rule of law.”
The Justice Department’s second-in-command then suggested that judges in the state are behaving “like activists” and undermining Americans’ confidence in the justice system, adding that “Alina is President Trump’s choice to lead—and no partisan bench can override that.”
