Delaware's former interim U.S. attorney has been appointed acting U.S. attorney after the district court declined to keep her as the top federal prosecutor in the First State when her term expired.

Julianne Murray is now serving as acting U.S. attorney, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed to Law360 Pulse on Thursday. Her term as interim U.S. attorney ended on Tuesday.

Representatives for Murray did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly announced last week that the court would not select Murray to hold the full role of U.S. attorney after her time as interim U.S. attorney ended, in a brief notice that did not provide his reasons.

Murray was managing partner of Murray Phillips & Gay PA — now Phillips & Gay — and served as chair of the Delaware Republican Party. She lost a race to become the Delaware attorney general in 2022 and was unsuccessful in 2020 in a race to become the state's governor.

The move in Delaware follows a similar pattern playing out in other states around federal prosecutor appointments.

A Third Circuit panel is currently considering whether the Trump administration's process for placing Alina Habba as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey — withdrawing her nomination to the Senate to be U.S. attorney and then appointing her both a special attorney and first assistant — complied with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the U.S. Constitution's appointments clause.

A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled in August that Habba was unlawfully given an extension of her temporary post after her "interim" appointment expired.

In Hawaii, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ruled in late October that the acting U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, was not lawfully serving in that role and disqualified him from remaining in it.

Acting Nevada U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah was disqualified in September from overseeing a handful of criminal cases after a federal judge determined she is "not validly serving as acting U.S. attorney" and that her involvement in the cases "would be unlawful."

In July, the Northern District of New York declined to appoint interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III to the permanent seat in that district.

And former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James are both attempting to get their separate criminal indictments thrown out on the ground that the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan was invalid.

Halligan's appointment came after the district's previous interim U.S. attorney had served for more than 120 days, in violation of federal law, both have argued.