US President Donald Trump cannot fire US attorneys who have been appointed by courts, a federal judge in Washington state said Thursday in a first-of-its-kind ruling that tests the scope of a president’s removal power under the Constitution, CNN reports.
The ruling comes from a lawsuit by Roger Rogoff, who was appointed by a federal court to be Seattle’s US attorney in July, only to be fired minutes later.
“Mr. Roger Rogoff is the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington and has been the rightful holder of that office since July 15, 2026, when he took the oath of office,” Judge Stanley Bastian, the chief judge of the eastern district court in Washington, said following an hourlong hearing.
Courts across the country have wrestled with the administration’s efforts to keep in place so-called “interim” US attorneys selected by the president beyond the 120 days federal law allows those prosecutors to serve in the temporary role. Once that time period expires, the law gives the local federal court the power to appoint someone to serve as US attorney until the Senate confirms the president’s appointee. However, in several instances, Trump then fired that court-appointed prosecutor.
Bastian said that a president’s powers to remove US attorneys under the law were limited to Senate-confirmed US attorneys – not those appointed by courts.
“Allowing the president to fire a United States attorney appointed by the court also eliminates the incentive to nominate a candidate that can be confirmed by the Senate,” Bastian said. “In other words, the executive and legislative branches are supposed to and encouraged to work together.”
