The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to the legality of President Trump’s decision to name Matthew Whitaker acting attorney general. The request came in a case, which the court also refused to review, disputing the constitutionality of the lifetime ban on felons owning guns when it’s applied to someone who served their sentence a long time ago and has since been a law abiding citizen.
Attorneys for Barry Michaels, the Nevada man at the center of the Second Amendment case, argued that under the federal succession statute Senate-confirmed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein automatically became acting attorney general after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions stepped down in November, and that Whitaker’s appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.