A federal appeals court panel on Monday upheld an order that disqualified Sigal Chattah from the top federal prosecutorial job in Nevada, ruling that the Justice Department’s effort to sidestep Senate confirmation is unlawful.
A three-judge panel for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in a 36-page opinion that Chattah cannot continue to oversee criminal prosecutions for a group of defendants who challenged her appointment.
The ruling rejects the Trump administration’s legal maneuvers that attempted to keep Chattah in the job by leveraging vacancy rules for key government positions.
Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, the first assistant to a Senate-confirmed officer assumes the acting role by default when a vacancy occurs.