{"id":126811,"date":"2025-07-15T14:42:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T22:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/15\/federal-judges-give-big-ol-nope-to-new-york-u-s-attorney-pick\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T14:42:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T22:42:49","slug":"federal-judges-give-big-ol-nope-to-new-york-u-s-attorney-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/15\/federal-judges-give-big-ol-nope-to-new-york-u-s-attorney-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judges Give Big Ol\u2019 Nope To New York U.S. Attorney Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of today, John Sarcone III\u00a0is out of a job. The former regional administrator for the US General Services Administration and town attorney in Westchester County was appointed to a 120-day term as interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York by Pam Bondi, and in order to keep the job, he needed approval of the Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. In a rare move, the panel of judges declined to extend Sarcone\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

Sarcone has been criticized for his lack of prosecutorial experience. Was that the reason for the panel\u2019s rejection of his appointment? Who knows? The panel\u2019s statement was supes short<\/a>, saying only: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York declines to exercise the authority granted pursuant to\u00a028 U.S. Code \u00a7 546(d)\u00a0to appoint a United States attorney for the Northern District of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Not only does Sarcone\u2019s resume have a dearth of related experience, he doesn\u2019t seem interested in the actual job of U.S. Attorney. In interviews he\u2019s described the position only as a temporary weigh station before he gets elevated to the federal bench. He said <\/a>he wanted to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York because \u201cI wanted to be part of [Trump\u2019s] \u2018Take Back America\u2019 initiative\u201d even \u201cknowing it\u2019s temporary.\u201d Back in the Trump I reign, Sarcone was nominated \u2014 unsuccessfully \u2014 for a judgeship. <\/p>\n

But before the panel rejected Sarcone\u2019s appointment, he was out there blabbing<\/a> that his role *had* been extended when the judges did no such thing. <\/p>\n

This is the first time a panel of judges has rejected the permanent appointment of an interim U.S. Attorney, so what happens next is a bit of a question mark. The vacancy reform act means the office\u2019s number 2 will get the role in an \u201cacting\u201d capacity, but that\u2019s not the final word. Sarcone could be appointed to back-to-back temporary appointments (no word on how that would interact with Sarcone\u2019s judicial ambitions), or another MAGA faithful could get the nod as there\u2019s overlapping federal laws in play. As Jennifer Selin, an associate professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O\u2019Connor College of Law, noted<\/a>, \u201cThis is where the Trump administration has been creative, and I don\u2019t think we really know legally how this all works. They\u2019re sort of creating their own precedent here.\u201d But since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a hold on all Justice Department political nominees, it\u2019s unlikely the role will be filled by the formal nomination\/Senate confirmation process.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Federal Judges Give Big Ol\u2019 Nope To New York U.S. Attorney Pick<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

As of today, John Sarcone III\u00a0is out of a job. The former regional administrator for the US General Services Administration and town attorney in Westchester County was appointed to a 120-day term as interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York by Pam Bondi, and in order to keep the job, he needed approval of the Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. In a rare move, the panel of judges declined to extend Sarcone\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

Sarcone has been criticized for his lack of prosecutorial experience. Was that the reason for the panel\u2019s rejection of his appointment? Who knows? The panel\u2019s statement was supes short<\/a>, saying only: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Board of Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York declines to exercise the authority granted pursuant to\u00a028 U.S. Code \u00a7 546(d)\u00a0to appoint a United States attorney for the Northern District of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Not only does Sarcone\u2019s resume have a dearth of related experience, he doesn\u2019t seem interested in the actual job of U.S. Attorney. In interviews he\u2019s described the position only as a temporary weigh station before he gets elevated to the federal bench. He said <\/a>he wanted to be the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York because \u201cI wanted to be part of [Trump\u2019s] \u2018Take Back America\u2019 initiative\u201d even \u201cknowing it\u2019s temporary.\u201d Back in the Trump I reign, Sarcone was nominated \u2014 unsuccessfully \u2014 for a judgeship. <\/p>\n

But before the panel rejected Sarcone\u2019s appointment, he was out there blabbing<\/a> that his role *had* been extended when the judges did no such thing. <\/p>\n

This is the first time a panel of judges has rejected the permanent appointment of an interim U.S. Attorney, so what happens next is a bit of a question mark. The vacancy reform act means the office\u2019s number 2 will get the role in an \u201cacting\u201d capacity, but that\u2019s not the final word. Sarcone could be appointed to back-to-back temporary appointments (no word on how that would interact with Sarcone\u2019s judicial ambitions), or another MAGA faithful could get the nod as there\u2019s overlapping federal laws in play. As Jennifer Selin, an associate professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O\u2019Connor College of Law, noted<\/a>, \u201cThis is where the Trump administration has been creative, and I don\u2019t think we really know legally how this all works. They\u2019re sort of creating their own precedent here.\u201d But since Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a hold on all Justice Department political nominees, it\u2019s unlikely the role will be filled by the formal nomination\/Senate confirmation process.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of today, John Sarcone III\u00a0is out of a job. The former regional administrator for the US General Services Administration and town attorney in Westchester County was appointed to a 120-day term as interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York by Pam Bondi, and in order to keep the job, he needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":126790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-QNxYce.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}