by Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney, law professor emeritus, and author of Federal law
Remember waaaaay back when, on December 1st (seems *so* long ago, doesn't it?) when the Court of Appeals in New Jersey issued a unanimous decision after Trump appealed the District Court ruling which ruled that the appointment of acting Assistant Alina Habba as an Assistant U.S. Attorney was *illegal*? (You can revisit that December spanking here: https://annepmitchell.substack.com/p/yes-unanimous-court-of-appeals-affirms )
Well, this time a *different* district court and Court of Appeals in a *different* state (this time Nevada), with a *different* attempted appointment of a *different* attorney was just as equally *smacked down*.
In essentially identical fact patterns!
In Habba's case several different criminal defendants challenged Habba's being on the case. The administration lost, and the Court ruled that Habba was *not* actually qualified to be acting as an attorney on the case. In that case they had first withdrawn Habba's nomination and then appointed her as "special counsel". The Court said "no dice."
And now, in the case of wannabe assistant U.S. attorney Sigal Chattah, several other criminal defendants challenged Chattah being on the case. The administration lost, and the Court ruled that Chattah... wait for it... was *not* actually qualified to be acting as an assistant U.S. attorney on the case.
In this case the facts were *slightly* different - in fact it seems pretty clear that the DOJ was trying to pull a different but equally underhanded slight of hand (so doubly duplicitous).
First, the setup: an Acting U.S. Attorney is assisted by a "first assistant". If the Acting U.S. Attorney leaves, leaving an opening, the first assistant fills the opening until a new Acting U.S. Attorney is appointed.
So, there was an Assistant U.S. Attorney spot that was vacant. As in *already* vacant. The DOJ attempted to appoint Chattah as the first assistant to the *already* vacant spot, and then bump him up to fill it.
That's right. THE ADMINISTRATION MADE HIM THE FIRST ASSISTANT TO "NOBODY".
The Court is having none of it.
This administration *never* learns.
Notes from the Front members: Today's luscious Court of Appeals order is below for you. (Note: if you have installed the Substack app on your phone you need to be sure to go to your notifications settings *in the app*, and set notifications to "email" because it defaults your account to "not email").
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P.S. If you actually read all the way to the bottom please leave a sentence in a comment that includes the word "hand". It will show me that my efforts aren't in vain and that people actually *do* read these things, and it will drive those who just skim crazy wondering just why everyone is talking about hands! ;~)
(The above was provided by me, Anne P. Mitchell, Esq. - attorney and law professor emeritus - all me, no AI, the buck stops here.)
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