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Case: 25-2635 Document: 81
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\nPage: 16
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\nDate Filed: 12\/01\/2025
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\nthereafter leaving (a)(2) and (a)(3) as the only means of selecting a different acting officer. First, \u00a7 3345(a) uses present-tense verbs (“dies, resigns, or is otherwise unable to perform”) indicating a single, immediate occurrence, as opposed to, for example, the present perfect tense (has died, has resigned), which could indicate past actions with continued relevance. Hewitt v. United States, 606 U.S. 419, 427\u201328 (2025). Further, to the extent the Government relies on the phrase \u201cis otherwise unable to perform\u201d (in contrast to \u201cdies\u201d or “resigns”) to demonstrate that \u00a7 3345(a) refers to a continuing state, Gov. Br. at 19, such an argument fails. Here, the residual \u201cotherwise\u201d provision is limited by the list of specific examples that precede it. Like \u201cdies\u201d and \u201cresigns,” “otherwise unable to perform\u201d must be read to refer to a single instance. Fischer, 603 U.S. at 489\u201390. (holding that the “otherwise” clause in 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1512(c)(2) is limited by preceding examples in (c)(1)).
\nThe Girauds cogently respond that the statute’s use of the definite article \u201cthe\u201d in reference to “the first assistant,” rather than \u201ca\u201d first assistant, \u201cclearly refers to the deputy already in place at the time the vacancy arises.” Giraud Br. 15. According to the Girauds, this interpretation of (a)(1) avoids \u201cthe elaborate safeguards in subsections (a)(2), (a)(3), and (b)(1) collaps[ing] into irrelevance.\u201d Id. at 18. Pina’s argument is similarly apt: he points out that the FVRA repeatedly makes expressly clear that “the President (and only the President)” may select the acting officer and that the Government’s approach would violate that language by giving the Attorney General broad discretion under the FVRA to appoint acting PAS officers by designating them first assistants. Pina Br. 27\u2013 28; see also 5 U.S.C. \u00a7 3345(a)(2), (a)(3), (c)(1).
\nIndeed, the upshot of the Government’s argument is that, while subsections (a)(2) and (a)(3) narrowly constrain
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Page: 16
Date Filed: 12\/01\/2025
thereafter leaving (a)(2) and (a)(3) as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-605675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115645463571025606","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}