Can the president fire a federal prosecutor appointed by judges?

That's the constitutional question at the center of Trump v. Rogoff, a dispute now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

After federal judges appointed Roger Rogoff as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, President Trump fired him less than an hour later. Rogoff sued, arguing that the president lacked the authority to remove a court-appointed prosecutor. A district court granted a preliminary injunction in Rogoff's favor, but the Ninth Circuit stayed that order while the appeal proceeds.

On this episode of Unwritten Law, NCLA President and Chief Legal Officer Mark Chenoweth and Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione welcome Senior Litigation Counsel Jacob Huebert to discuss NCLA's newly filed amicus brief.

NCLA argues that the president has the constitutional authority to remove U.S. attorneys, regardless of who appointed them. The brief also raises a broader constitutional concern: whether federal judges should be appointing executive-branch prosecutors in the first place.

Mark, John, and Jacob examine the Supreme Court's recent Trump v. Slaughter decision, the separation of powers, the role of the Senate in confirming federal prosecutors, and why this dispute could have implications far beyond Washington State.