In a loss for the Trump administration, an appeals court Monday upheld a lower court ruling disqualifying Alina Habba from her position as acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
In a 32-page ruling, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Habba's appointment violates the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, or FVRA.
Judge Michael Fisher wrote for the three-judge panel, "It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place," saying the steps it took to install Habba run afoul of the law.
The decision stems from motions from three criminal defendants who argued that President Donald Trump’s appointment of Habba, who had been overseeing their case, was unlawful and that she should be disqualified and the cases against them dismissed.
A lower court judge declined to dismiss their cases but agreed Habba should be disqualified — and the appeals court agreed.
Attorneys who challenged Habba's appointment praised the ruling in a joint statement.
The decision affirms that “Habba is unlawfully and invalidly serving as the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey, marking the first time an appellate court has ruled that President Trump cannot usurp longstanding statutory and constitutional processes to insert whomever he wants in these positions,” said the trio, Abbe Lowell, Gerry Krovatin and Norm Eisen.
The White House referred a request for comment to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. The New Jersey U.S. attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Habba is a former personal lawyer to Trump.
A federal judge ruled in August that Habba’s appointment was “unlawful,” though the order was on hold as the legal proceedings continued in an appeals court.
In the summer ruling, U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann took issue with Trump's naming Habba in March as interim U.S. attorney, a position that is time-limited to 120 days. He said in his ruling that while Trump nominated her in June to be the permanent attorney, the Senate did not take up her nomination.
Weeks after Trump nominated her to the permanent position, judges for U.S. District Court of New Jersey appointed her deputy to be the new U.S. attorney. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi fired the deputy, appointed Habba as “Special Attorney to the Attorney General” with all the powers of the U.S. attorney, and then appointed her to the deputy position, which allowed her to become the acting U.S. attorney again.
The appeals court found that Bondi cannot delegate all the power of the office to Habba with the special attorney appointment.
"This delegation theory would create a means for the Department of Justice to circumvent the FVRA’s exclusivity provision, effectively permitting anyone to fill the U.S. Attorney role indefinitely. This should raise a red flag," the ruling said.
The appeals court ruled just days after a federal judge dismissed criminal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after having found that acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, who was prosecuting the cases, was unlawfully appointed.
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie said last month that Halligan, another former Trump lawyer with no prosecutorial experience, “had no lawful authority to present the indictment.”
The administration has said it will appeal that ruling, as well.
