USA v. Julien Giraud, Jr.
Split Score
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Case Summary
Disposition
Affirmed
The Third Circuit held that Alina Habba may not serve as Acting United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey because (1) only the first-assistant in place when the vacancy arose may automatically assume acting duties under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) and (2) the FVRA’s ‘nomination bar’ disqualifies anyone whom the President has previously nominated for the same vacancy. In addition, the court ruled that the Attorney General cannot evade the FVRA by broadly delegating all of a U.S. Attorney’s powers to Habba, and it therefore affirmed the district court’s order disqualifying her from the prosecutions of Julien Giraud Jr., Julien Giraud III, and Cesar Pina.
Circuit Split Identified
Legal Issue
Whether the FVRA’s exclusivity provision (§ 3347) bars the Attorney General from using general vesting-and-delegation statutes (28 U.S.C. §§ 509-510) to confer all powers of a vacant PAS office on a subordinate who is not a duly appointed ‘acting’ officer.
Circuit Positions
FVRA exclusivity bars broad delegation of all U.S.-Attorney powers; delegate becomes unlawful de-facto acting officer.
FVRA limits apply only to non-delegable duties; delegable duties (even if all-encompassing) may be exercised by a non-acting official under general delegation statutes.
Conflict Summary
The Third Circuit held that the FVRA’s exclusivity provision prohibits any broad delegation that would make the delegate a de facto acting officer, even for duties that might be otherwise delegable, whereas the Federal Circuit (in Arthrex, Inc. v. Smith & Nephew) concluded that the FVRA applies only to non-delegable duties and therefore permits delegations of all delegable functions to non-acting officials.