The Federal Vacancy Reform Act (28 U.S.C. § 546) establishes that US attorneys are appointed by district court judges and can only be removed by the President during a 120-day interim period; once this period expires, the judges retain appointment authority until a Senate-confirmed presidential nominee is appointed, creating a constitutional check on executive removal power that was challenged when a Washington state US attorney was fired within an hour of his judges' appointment.
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Blanche FALTERS as Prosecutor PICKED By Judges WON’T Take FIRED for an ANSWER!!!
Added:We got a landmark case that's just been filed, first of its kind, this time in Washington state, as a US attorney appointed by the district court judges, is challenging the ability for Donald Trump and Todd Blanch to fire him within an hour and do so in violation of the Federal Vacancy Reform Act. We got the Federal Vacancy Reform Act on one hand.
We got the appointments clause in the United States Supreme Court that allows Donald Trump to fire most everyone in the executive branch coming to a head right here in the form of the plaintiff Roger Rogoff. Judge Rogoff, who is appointed as the US attorney, having been a former federal prosecutor, did not take lightly that Todd Blanch fired him and the president fired him about an hour later. He claims in the new filing and asking for a preliminary injunction that that is a violation of section 546D of the federal vacancy reform act.
Donald Trump has violated that act up and down America. If you can recall just this last July, a year ago, he fired within hours an appointee by the district court in New Jersey, when he was trying to figure out how to fill the vacancy after Alma Alina Haba could not be confirmed because the two senators there, senators Kim and Booker, would not advance her nomination to a Senate confirmation hearing. He did the same thing. He fired her, too. Uh I did similar reporting last July. The difference is that while uh that person uh while Desiree uh Good did not file her motion, Judge Rogoff has filed his motion to get back into that chair.
Let's cover it right here. And for those that are interested, I hope you are. You can read the preliminary injunction motion. They're all 32 pages of it up on Legal AF Substack. We're in the Western District of Washington. It's been filed in Seattle and they've asked for a motion hearing sometime in middle August. This is the way it works. When there is an opening, nobody in the US attorney's office position. The attorney general can appoint somebody temporarily for 120 days.
We're now in day 547 of the Trump administration. So that period of temporary filling by the executive branch and by the attorney general under the vacancy reform act and the appointments clause is over. And so that position has been vacant all of this time. There are 93 federal districts.
Each one has a US attorney. It's divided up. That's how our our federal court system is divided up into those 93 districts. You need the US attorney in each district. They are the chief law enforcement officer as a uh a as a um a unit of the department of justice in Washington and that's how they operate.
They make prosecutorial decisions. They run what's going in front of the grand jury along with their assistant US attorneys. It's a very important position. Now, many years ago, Congress took for themselves the right to appoint a US attorney, knowing that position was so important if the president was playing political games with it or if there was a vacancy for too long.
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Right now, Donald Trump has not nominated anybody to be the US attorney for this particular district, and so it's remained vacant. So, the district court judges got together, about a dozen of them, and they picked Roger Rogoff.
His tenure, according to the uh according to the Department of Justice, lasted about an hour when he got fired.
Now, what's happened in other districts is that there's been close consultation between the judges and, let's say, Todd Blanch to figure out if somebody's suitable and acceptable to Donald Trump.
But I think he's forfeited his right to be involved in that process. They've taken it upon themselves that they'll oppose anybody and fire anybody that they're not consulted about. But that doesn't mean that's what the uh the voting reform, the vacancy reform act is all about. Let me read to you from what happened here. This is on page uh two over to three in their filing. Under section 546, the attorney general may appoint an interim US attorney and that appointment may last no longer than 120 days. Once that appointment expires, the district court may appoint an interim office holder. That's under 28 United States Code section 546A, C, and D. A courtappointed US attorney then serves until the vacancy is filled by a proper Senate confirmed appointment as provided for in the constitution.
Enter Roger Rogoff selected by the judges of that district. The carefully calibrated design, the motion says, balances the same considerations and furthers the same separation of powers principles as the appointments clause of the constitution.
Um Rogoff's firing violates the constitution. The appointments clause authorizes Congress to decide how inferior officers are appointed.
Congress did so by permitting the executive to appoint interim US attorneys for a specific time and then shifting that appointment power to the courts whose appointment remains in place until a presidential nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Ignoring Congress's dictates, the president purported to fire Rogoff, leaving in place a de facto office head long after the executive's interim appointment power had expired. It all comes down to the power of section 546. Now, why I said this [clears throat] is going to run into a potential brick wall, but we'll we'll have to see how they thread the needle, is that the United States Supreme Court, except in the case of the Federal Reserve, has effectively given Donald Trump freehand to fire inferior agency branch heads. But there's never been a case that looks at the judiciary and its role picking a US attorney as part of the Department of Justice and the constitutionality, if you will, of the vacancy reform act. Well, we've got our case in plaintiff Roger Rogoff and his appointment here. Now, they do a good job in their briefing. So, shout out to the law firm of Munger, Tols, and Olsen. I know that firm well, sitting in their Los Angeles office in their moving papers before the judge. They do a good job, I believe, of distinguishing why the cases they know are coming from the Department of Justice, from the United States Supreme Court involving the Federal Trade Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission or the uh National Labor Relations Board or the uh you know CFTC or the Merit Systems Protection Board, you name it.
Except for the Federal Reserve and Lisa Cook, they've allowed Trump to swing the axe. But I think it's time to get before that Supreme Court and see what happens when you're talking about Congress, the US Attorney's Office, and judges, and if they're going to clip the wings of federal judges and declare that section 546 is somehow unconstitutional. Now, here's what they argue on page 16. They say that section 546D does not unduly interfere with the president's authority and that it's fully consistent with the separation of powers. Congress may restrict the removal of inferior officers as long as the president remains responsible for the exercise of executive power. Congress carefully crafted statutory framework for the appointment of the interim US attorney and granting the executive substantial power over this election. But if the president declines to make use of those authorities, he he's uh he still remains he still has the power to fill it by appropriate appointment and confirmation with the United States Senate. It's just this interim period. I think this listen I I don't know what Rogoff is exactly up to. I think he wants to stop Donald Trump dead in his tracks from now until the end of his term from firing at will US attorneys. and let's get a constitutional ruling from the United States Supreme Court about the Vacancy Reform Act. Now, sometimes you bring cases like this hoping to make good law.
Sometimes you make bad law depending upon the United States Supreme Court.
But I think in this case it is a fight worth having.
Um and we're going to see what happens next. You know that Blanch is not happy because he was behind firing Rogoff. Um, and again, this is again another impault on the rule of law by Donald Trump, which we're going to continue to follow here on Legal AF. I got a great pro programming note for everybody here. Uh, later today, Senator Waro, Reverend Senator Waro from Georgia will be joining me about protecting the right to vote, his new plan to do that, as well as his critique of the United States Supreme Court. I mean, Senator Osaf, his colleague, is in a dog fight. Is it in a fight, sorry, to in order to become uh reelected to the US Senate and and uh Reverend Senator Waro is going to have a huge influence on bringing out the vote to help Assaf and and be one step closer to the Democrats getting the Senate along with the House. I think you're going to enjoy that interview up on Legal AF later today. And uh following this video is my interview exclusively with Katie Fang about the new filing in her case about the Epstein files and why she thinks Todd Blanch is going to be found in contempt by Judge Sullivan.
You're not going to want to miss that coming up next on Legal AF.
And also early voting has started. Hit the free subscribe button. Help us to continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. Until we want to get to two million votes before November, until my next report, I'm Michael Popac. Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me neither.
That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing [music] or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning [music] AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where?
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