A federal appeals court said Monday that Alina Habba had been serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and most likely setting up a showdown at the Supreme Court.

In its ruling, the three-judge panel, based in Philadelphia, affirmed an earlier ruling by a U.S. District Court judge, shooting down each of the government’s arguments for why Habba could continue to serve.

In their opinion, the judges wrote that the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by the legal and political barriers that have prevented its preferred U.S. attorneys from leading federal prosecutors’ offices. They added that the maneuvers undertaken to keep Habba in charge exemplified the difficulties it had faced.

“Yet the citizens of New Jersey a

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