An appellate court found on Monday that Alina Habba is illegally serving as the top prosecutor in New Jersey, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump as he fights to keep his favorite nominees in charge of U.S. attorney’s offices in blue states.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said in a ruling that the lower court was right to disqualify Hubba, a fierce Trump loyalist who previously worked as the president’s personal defense attorney.
The Trump administration could ask for an entire panel of Third Circuit judges to reconsider the decision, or it could turn to the Supreme Court to consider it. Fox News Digital contacted Justice Department and Hubba spokespeople for comment.
A three-judge panel for the Third Circuit heard arguments on Hubba’s appointment in October and unconventionally questioned a Justice Department lawyer about the way Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi reinstated Hubba as U.S. attorney after his initial, temporary appointment ended.
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Hubba is one of several names embroiled in court proceedings over allegations that Trump bypassed the Senate and improperly took advantage of loopholes in federal vacancy laws to retain his favorite prosecutors.
Hubba’s case was the longest in the court process, but Lindsay Halligan and Bill Essaly, interim U.S. attorneys in Virginia and California, respectively, are also facing high-profile court challenges to their appointments.
The panel hearing Hubba’s case included two individuals appointed by former President George W. Bush and one appointed by former President Barack Obama.
The justices expressed skepticism over DOJ attorney Henry Whittaker’s claims that Bondi had the authority to fill the vacancy as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney after Trump fired the court-appointed attorney. Whitaker said the administration simply took advantage of “overriding mechanisms” given to it by Congress.
Trump’s US lawyers face legal challenges in blue states that could lead to major lawsuits
Alina Hubba speaks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 20, 2025 in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Andrew Harnick/Getty Images)
“In this case, the executive branch admittedly took a number of steps precisely and at the right time not to avoid or circumvent those mechanisms but to be scrupulously careful to comply with them,” Whittaker said.
One of the justices said during oral arguments that he considered Habba’s case unusual and possibly unconstitutional.
“Would you believe that the sequence of events here, and to me, they are unusual, would you believe that there are serious constitutional implications here to your principle, your principle of government, which is really a complete violation of the Appointments Clause, it seems?” the judge asked.
Veteran D.C. lawyer Abbey Lowell, known for her involvement in lawsuits challenging the Trump administration, represented defendants opposing Hubbard’s appointment.
Two groups of defendants facing irregular charges challenged Hubba, saying she should not be allowed to prosecute them because she was an inadmissible U.S. attorney.
Trump’s nominees are stuck between ‘blue slips’ and blue obstruction
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks as President Donald Trump attends a press conference in the Oval Office of the White House on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Hubba had no path to Senate confirmation, partly because New Jersey’s Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, had not approved him through the Senate’s blue slip tradition.
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That precedent has drawn Trump’s ire because Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, stands firmly behind blue slips, which require home state senators to approve U.S. attorney and district judge nominees.
Trump recently fired former U.S. Attorney Eric Siebert to send a message that earning the approval of Democratic senators could be disqualifying in his view, leading to a standoff in the upper chamber over his nominees in blue states.
This is a breaking new story and will be updated.
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