What Trump and Pam Bondi Are Doing in New Jersey Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think

Source: Slate Magazine

What Trump and Pam Bondi Are Doing in New Jersey Is a Bigger Deal Than You Think

Mark Joseph Stern
Wed, July 23, 2025 at 2:09 PM EDT·7 min read

On Tuesday, the Trump administration launched its most direct and aggressive confrontation with the judiciary so far: The Justice Department rejected a federal court’s authority to name a new U.S. attorney to New Jersey to replace Alina Habba, the president’s unqualified and sycophantic interim appointee. In replacing Habba, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, the court was acting under an express grant of power provided by Congress—one explicitly permitted by the Constitution and sanctioned by history reaching back to 1789. Nonetheless, the administration responded by firing Habba’s constitutionally appointed replacement from the U.S. attorney’s office, then slandered the court as a corrupt body of “rogue judges” allegedly “colluding” with Democrats to “override the authority of the Chief Executive.”

It is, of course, highly unusual for the executive branch to dismiss the power of the judiciary with such vitriol and disdain. But this administration seems emboldened by the Supreme Court’s own disrespect toward the lower courts, paired with the justices’ expansion of executive authority to new, monarchical extremes. SCOTUS all but teed up this showdown between the two branches by awarding Trump more control over the entire federal government than perhaps any president in history has had. It should come as no surprise that he wields this presidential supremacy to reject core duties of the other two branches.

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These antics made Habba the rare Trump nominee who could not secure confirmation in the Senate. And as an unconfirmed interim U.S. attorney, her tenure expired after 120 days under the federal statute governing this position. That law says that after 120 days are up, the attorney general may name someone else as new interim U.S. attorney—or the federal district court “may appoint” a U.S. attorney who serves “until the vacancy is filled.” Attorney General Pam Bondi evidently decided not to line up another loyalist to replace Habba; instead, she and Habba reportedly lobbied the judges on New Jersey’s U.S. District Court to reappoint her. That effort flopped, and the court instead named Habba’s first assistant, Desiree Leigh Grace, to replace her. Grace is an experienced and respected prosecutor, and her selection was approved by Chief Judge Renée Marie Bumb, a George W. Bush appointee.

The Justice Department retaliated quickly: Within hours, ...

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-pam-bondi-doing-jersey-180903801.html