Appeals court decides on Alina Habba’s fate as NJ US attorney

An appeals court found Monday that Alina Haba is serving illegally as New Jersey’s top prosecutor, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump as he struggles to keep his favored nominees in charge of U.S. attorneys’ offices in blue states.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said, in a unanimous ruling, that a lower court was right to disqualify Hapa, a staunch Trump loyalist who previously served as the president’s personal defense attorney.

The Trump administration’s argument is that it will be “effective.” [permit] “Anyone who would serve as U.S. Attorney indefinitely,” the committee wrote, adding that “this should raise a red flag.”

The administration could ask a full panel of Third Circuit judges to reconsider the decision, or it could turn to the Supreme Court for consideration. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Justice and a HAPA spokesperson for comment.

Trump appoints Heba as acting US prosecutor after judges ousted her

The three-judge panel heard arguments on Haba’s appointment in October, questioning Justice Department lawyers about the unorthodox way in which Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi reinstalled Haba as US attorney general after her initial temporary appointment expired.

Haba is one of several names caught up in court proceedings over allegations that Trump bypassed the Senate and improperly exploited loopholes in federal jobs laws to keep his favored prosecutors in place.

Hapa’s case has been the longest in court proceedings, but Lindsay Halligan and Bill Isailey, interim U.S. attorneys in Virginia and California, respectively, are among those also facing high-stakes court challenges over their appointments. A federal judge last week found that Halligan was performing her role illegally, but the administration has vowed to appeal the decision.

The panel that heard Hapa’s case consisted of two appointees of former President George W. Bush and one appointee of former President Barack Obama.

Trump’s US attorneys in blue states face legal challenges that could upend major prosecutions

Alina Haba speaks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)

The justices had expressed doubt about claims by Justice Department lawyer Henry Whitaker that Bondi had the authority to fill the vacant position of US attorney for New Jersey after Trump fired the court-appointed lawyer. Whitaker said the administration simply took advantage of the “overlapping mechanisms” congress gave it.

“In this case, the executive branch took a series of precise, carefully timed steps not to evade or circumvent those mechanisms, but to be very careful to adhere to them,” Whitaker said.

One judge said during oral arguments that he found the gift case unusual and perhaps unconstitutional.

“Do you admit that the sequence of events here is, to me, unusual, do you admit that there are serious constitutional implications to your theory here, the theory of government, which is in fact a complete circumvention, it seems, of the Appointments Clause?” The judge asked.

Veteran D.C. attorney Abe Lowell, known for his involvement in lawsuits challenging the Trump administration, represented the defendants who challenged Haba’s appointment.

Two sets of defendants facing regular charges took aim at Heba, saying she should not be allowed to prosecute them because she is an unfit US attorney.

Trump’s nominees are caught between “blue gaffes” and blue obstruction

US Attorney Pam Bondi speaks as President Donald Trump looks on during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House on October 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)

Hapa had no path to Senate confirmation, in part because New Jersey’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, did not approve her through the Senate’s blue-slip tradition.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The precedent has drawn Trump’s ire as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stands firmly behind the blueprint, which requires home state senators to approve nominees for U.S. attorney general and district judges.

Trump recently conveyed, through his firing of former US Attorney General Eric Seibert, that obtaining the approval of Democratic senators could lead to disqualification from his perspective, creating a stalemate with the Senate over his nominees in blue states.