Brief filed: 11/25/2025
Documents
United States v. Jackson
9th Circuit Court of Appeals; Case No. 25-6214
Argument(s)
Sigal Chattah is ineligible to act as the United States Attorney for the District of Nevada. The Attorney General appointed Ms. Chattah in March 2025 to be the interim United States Attorney under 28 U.S.C. § 546, which allowed Ms. Chattah to serve for 120 days or until the confirmation of a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney. After 120 days, the district court in Nevada—not the Attorney General—was empowered to appoint a replacement. 28 U.S.C. § 546(d). But the Attorney General was determined to prevent the district court from acting and to keep Ms. Chattah as U.S. Attorney. The Attorney General purported to: (i) make Ms. Chattah a “Special Attorney” under 28 U.S.C. § 515; (ii) designate Ms. Chattah as the First Assistant (while redesignating the then-First Assistant as the “Executive U.S. Attorney”); and then (iii) assert that Ms. Chattah was the acting U.S. Attorney under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (“FVRA”). To our knowledge, no prior Attorney General has ever attempted this. This Court should reject the Attorney General’s convoluted attempt to circumvent the law.
Author(s)
James I. Pearce, Samantha P. Bateman, Mary L. Dohrmann, and Nathaniel A.G. Zelinsky, Washington Litigation Group, Washington, D.C.
