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A three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling disqualifying the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, Sigal Chattah, from supervising cases against defendants who challenged their prosecutions on grounds that Chattah’s appointment was legally defective. The panel held that under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998, the Attorney General may not appoint an acting U.S. attorney by designating that person as first-assistant to an already-vacant office. The Trump administration said it would appeal the decision. (Opinion.) (NYT.)
Judge Theodore D. Chuang (D. Md.) on Monday held that the General Services Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation violated the Administrative Procedure Act by abandoning plans to relocate the FBI’s headquarters to Maryland and repurposing hundreds of millions of dollars in associated funds. (Opinion.) (NYT.) (WaPo.)
Four counties and cities filed a lawsuit on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s conditioning of homeland security grants on localities adopting mandatory changes to their election procedures. (Complaint.)
The Justice Department intends to deploy roughly 1,000 monitors to polling sites across the country in November to promote security in the midterm elections. (Bloomberg.) (WaPo.)
The Justice Department issued a final rule on Monday that sets forth a process for individuals with felony convictions to apply to have their gun rights reinstated. (Press Release.) (Rule.) (WSJ.)
Orin S. Kerr discussed the legality of a government program announced by President Trump last week that would allow United States companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations. (Volokh Conspiracy.)
Steve Vladeck argued that the Fifth Circuit’s dismissal of an appeal challenging the president’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act “drives home how much the government had already lost.” (One First.)
Pending Interim Order Applications Involving the U.S. Government in the Supreme Court
Trump v. California: The government filed an application on July 27 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction that blocked federal agencies from implementing certain portions of the president’s March 31 executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The 23 states and the District of Columbia challenging the order filed a consolidated opposition on August 3, arguing that a stay “would allow the federal government to rush out an unprecedented, legally indefensible voter-verification and ballot-interception program.” The government filed a reply on August 4, arguing that the states rest their challenge on “speculation about what impact the Executive Order would have if it were ultimately implemented in violation of federal law.” The government filed asupplemental brief on August 12 to “inform the Court of a recent order in a parallel case” and the states responded the same day.
Alabama v. California: Twelve states filed an application on July 29 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction that blocked federal agencies from implementing certain portions of the president’s March 31 executive order entitled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections.” The 23 states and the District of Columbia challenging the order filed a consolidated opposition on August 3. The twelve states filed a reply on August 4, arguing that the executive order “imposes zero obligations on the States or public.”
National Park Service v. National Trust for Historic Preservation: The government filed an application on August 13 requesting the Supreme Court to stay a district court injunction blocking further construction of the White House ballroom. On August 14, the Chief Justice requested a response by 12 p.m. on August 18.