Appoint Break

This week in New Jersey, Alina Habba, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, was named as the state’s acting U.S. attorney.

This spring, Trump appointed Habba to serve as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a position with a 120-day term that was set to expire today. To continue in her role past the deadline, the state’s federal judges would have had to appoint Habba. Instead, the judges appointed Desiree Leigh Grace, Habba’s assistant, to the position. Shortly afterwards, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on social media that she had fired Grace from the Department of Justice.

The Trump administration contends that firing Grace left the position of U.S. attorney vacant (though some experts argue that court-appointed U.S. attorneys can’t be fired by the attorney general), and used a multi-step maneuver to appoint Habba instead. First, Bondi appointed Habba to Grace’s former position as first assistant U.S. attorney. Second, Trump withdrew Habba’s nomination to the Senate to be U.S. attorney, making her eligible to be an “acting” U.S. attorney. So, because of the supposed vacancy, Habba would take over the role of U.S. Attorney on an acting basis.

“Politics never impacted my work at the department,” Grace said in a statement. “Priorities change, of course, and resources are shifted, but the work and the mission were steady.”

This Week in Democracy

• The White House banned Wall Street Journal reporters from traveling with President Trump to cover his trip to Scotland, days after he sued the newspaper over an article it published about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

  Earlier this year, the White House banned reporters from The Associated Press (AP) from the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP sued, arguing that the ban was a violation of the First Amendment. A judge agreed and ordered that the reporters be allowed in. However, a panel of appeals court judges later paused the order from being enforced. This week, the full appeals court denied the AP’s appeal of the pause.

• A federal appeals court in Washington state upheld a February ruling that blocked Trump’s executive order that seeks to deny citizenship to some U.S.-born children from going into effect.

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision that limited judges’ power to issue nationwide orders left open the possibility that they could still do so, but only when necessary for “complete relief.” The appeals court this week concluded that such an order was necessary in this case.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Birthright Citizenship

• The Texas legislature began a special legislative session on Monday. Gov. Greg Abbott called the session after the deadly floods in the state earlier this month. The lawmakers will address emergency preparedness and other items on Abbott’s agenda.

  However, Abbott added redrawing the state’s congressional districts to the agenda after Trump called him. (Redistricting is usually only done once every decade—it was last done in 2021.) The president wants state legislators to redraw the maps to give Republicans five additional seats in the U.S. House.

• The Department of Defense sent home about 700 U.S. Marines deployed to Los Angeles. The Marines were deployed in June as part of the Trump administration’s response to protests over its immigration policies.

  There are still about 2,000 California National Guard troops deployed in the Los Angeles area. Members of the National Guard from more states are expected to be mobilized to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement at detention facilities, according to reports.

  ➡️ READ: Sharing the Facts About Domestic Military Deployment and State Authority

State of the States

As we wrote in a recent newsletter, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been sending letters to state election officials. Some request information about their voter registration lists or other election information, while others threaten to withhold federal funding for elections if they don’t comply with the department’s demands.

That effort has continued and expanded to more states—including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. (The Republican National Committee also sued New Jersey looking for election records.) The DOJ sent its latest letter to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, seeking a copy of the state’s voter registration list and information on how the lists are maintained. The letter also contained questions about the state’s high levels of voter registration.