Case Explained: USA V. ENRIQUEZ

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Filed: 2026-08-17 Docket: 2:25-cr-00240- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s order disqualifying Sigal Chattah from supervising the prosecutions of three defendants in the District of Nevada, holding that the Attorney General cannot bypass Senate confirmation requirements by designating an individual as the first assistant to a vacant U.S. Attorney office after the vacancy has already occurred. The court applied the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA), specifically 5 U.S.C. § 3345(a)(1), ruling that the statute’s automatic succession provision applies only to the first assistant who held that position at the precise moment the vacancy arose, not to a person appointed as first assistant after the office became vacant. Furthermore, the court held that the FVRA is the exclusive means for temporarily authorizing an acting official to perform the functions of a Senate-confirmed office under 5 U.S.C. § 3347(a), thereby prohibiting the Attorney General from circumventing the Act by delegating all powers and duties of the U.S. Attorney to a single individual via general delegation statutes such as 28 U.S.C. § 515. The court dismissed the defendants’ cross-appeals challenging the denial of their motions to dismiss the indictments for lack of appellate jurisdiction, concluding that the legal questions regarding Chattah’s appointment authority and the appropriate remedy for an unlawful appointment are not inextricably intertwined, as resolving one does not require resolving the other. As a practical consequence, the disqualification order stands, preventing Chattah from supervising the prosecutions, while the indictments remain valid and the cases proceed without dismissal based on the appointment defect. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.