Court Boots Trump’s Pick: Habba Ousted as NJ’s Top Prosecutor

Paul Riverbank, 12/2/2025Court blocks Trump pick Alina Habba as NJ prosecutor, spotlighting fierce fights over appointment rules.

You’d imagine this sort of thing hardly needs judicial intervention; federal rules for filling vacancies have stood for a century. But the legal tussle itself revealed a broader, more prickly national question—how far does a White House go to install its own loyalists, especially where the opposition happens to be strongest?

The panel of judges—two originally tapped by Bush, one by Obama—laid it out, almost wearily. Their message: You can’t just shuffle your favorites into place after the fact. Without sugarcoating it, their ruling stated that Habba’s leap to Acting U.S. Attorney through a backdoor maneuver violated federal vacancy law. In short, only someone already occupying the “first assistant” job when a vacancy arises can automatically step up, and even then, the law draws a pretty sharp time limit unless the Senate confirms them.

If this all sounds technical, its impact is anything but. Habba’s brief reign was hardly quiet—her most headline-grabbing moment came after a raucous confrontation at a detention facility, where she indicted more than one high-profile Democrat. She made no secret of her partisan zeal, telling reporters she hoped to help “turn New Jersey red”—a rare candor that, intentionally or not, set legal and political teeth on edge.

And in New Jersey, of course, politics is never simple. The Trump administration’s determination to anchor favorite picks in key prosecutor’s offices—especially in blue states, where Democratic lawmakers wield considerable procedural power—ran into an old but sturdy roadblock: the “blue slip.” This Senate custom, little known outside the Beltway, lets a home state senator quietly tank a nominee simply by declining to return a blue piece of paper. No blue slip, no confirmation—no matter who’s in the Oval Office.

When New Jersey’s two Democratic senators withheld their stamps of approval, the administration, running short on options, tried to reset the chessboard by briefly removing a court-appointed acting attorney and reinstalling Habba under a different mechanism. DOJ lawyers argued in court that these overlapping strategies were allowed under federal law. The judges, unimpressed, disagreed.

Judge D. Michael Fisher, writing for the court, was blunt: While he sympathized with the desire for greater control over appointments, the “citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.” Washington’s improvisation, he suggested, did the opposite.

More than an inside-baseball battle over process, this ruling brings real consequences. Every prosecution and indictment Habba signed off on after her authority lapsed now exists in uncertain legal territory—defense attorneys eyeing those files are probably clearing their calendars.

For Habba, the setback was an occasion to cast herself as a champion for others left waiting for Senate hearings. Her political aspirations are clearer now, if anything—though the path forward is anything but. Trump’s team could appeal to the full Third Circuit or press the case to the Supreme Court, but at this moment, neither avenue looks likely to produce a quick reversal.

Meanwhile, old currents persist. The blue slip, as wielded on the Senate Judiciary Committee by Chuck Grassley, remains remarkably effective at bottling up nominees. It’s an old workhorse of institutional standoff, and if recent events are any guide, it’s not going out of style. Trump himself, with characteristic bluntness, recently suggested that trying to woo Democratic senators was an exercise in futility.

At the end of the day, after all the legal wrangling and political chest-thumping, New Jersey’s main federal prosecutor’s office is left with yet another interim head and a backdrop of uncertainty for pending and future cases. If there’s a message to take from this episode—and it’s a message with national implications—it’s this: even in the pressure-cooker of today’s partisanship, the rules still matter. Pandemic or no pandemic, administration in or out, these legal guardrails aren’t merely ceremonial. For now, Habba is off the board, and the real challenge for federal law enforcement—delivering justice with legitimacy—remains as complicated as ever.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia handed down a ruling this week that landed with more than a dull thud in legal circles—it slammed the brakes, definitively, on Alina Habba’s brief and contentious stint as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor. The outcome was as clear as rare winter sun: Habba, a former attorney for Donald Trump, cannot serve in that post.You’d imagine this sort of thing hardly needs judicial intervention; federal rules for filling vacancies have stood for a century. But the legal tussle itself revealed a broader, more prickly national question—how far does a White House go to install its own loyalists, especially where the opposition happens to be strongest?The panel of judges—two originally tapped by Bush, one by Obama—laid it out, almost wearily. Their message: You can’t just shuffle your favorites into place after the fact. Without sugarcoating it, their ruling stated that Habba’s leap to Acting U.S. Attorney through a backdoor maneuver violated federal vacancy law. In short, only someone already occupying the “first assistant” job when a vacancy arises can automatically step up, and even then, the law draws a pretty sharp time limit unless the Senate confirms them.If this all sounds technical, its impact is anything but. Habba’s brief reign was hardly quiet—her most headline-grabbing moment came after a raucous confrontation at a detention facility, where she indicted more than one high-profile Democrat. She made no secret of her partisan zeal, telling reporters she hoped to help “turn New Jersey red”—a rare candor that, intentionally or not, set legal and political teeth on edge.And in New Jersey, of course, politics is never simple. The Trump administration’s determination to anchor favorite picks in key prosecutor’s offices—especially in blue states, where Democratic lawmakers wield considerable procedural power—ran into an old but sturdy roadblock: the “blue slip.” This Senate custom, little known outside the Beltway, lets a home state senator quietly tank a nominee simply by declining to return a blue piece of paper. No blue slip, no confirmation—no matter who’s in the Oval Office.When New Jersey’s two Democratic senators withheld their stamps of approval, the administration, running short on options, tried to reset the chessboard by briefly removing a court-appointed acting attorney and reinstalling Habba under a different mechanism. DOJ lawyers argued in court that these overlapping strategies were allowed under federal law. The judges, unimpressed, disagreed.Judge D. Michael Fisher, writing for the court, was blunt: While he sympathized with the desire for greater control over appointments, the “citizens of New Jersey and the loyal employees in the U.S. Attorney’s Office deserve some clarity and stability.” Washington’s improvisation, he suggested, did the opposite.More than an inside-baseball battle over process, this ruling brings real consequences. Every prosecution and indictment Habba signed off on after her authority lapsed now exists in uncertain legal territory—defense attorneys eyeing those files are probably clearing their calendars.For Habba, the setback was an occasion to cast herself as a champion for others left waiting for Senate hearings. Her political aspirations are clearer now, if anything—though the path forward is anything but. Trump’s team could appeal to the full Third Circuit or press the case to the Supreme Court, but at this moment, neither avenue looks likely to produce a quick reversal.Meanwhile, old currents persist. The blue slip, as wielded on the Senate Judiciary Committee by Chuck Grassley, remains remarkably effective at bottling up nominees. It’s an old workhorse of institutional standoff, and if recent events are any guide, it’s not going out of style. Trump himself, with characteristic bluntness, recently suggested that trying to woo Democratic senators was an exercise in futility.At the end of the day, after all the legal wrangling and political chest-thumping, New Jersey’s main federal prosecutor’s office is left with yet another interim head and a backdrop of uncertainty for pending and future cases. If there’s a message to take from this episode—and it’s a message with national implications—it’s this: even in the pressure-cooker of today’s partisanship, the rules still matter. Pandemic or no pandemic, administration in or out, these legal guardrails aren’t merely ceremonial. For now, Habba is off the board, and the real challenge for federal law enforcement—delivering justice with legitimacy—remains as complicated as ever.