WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s controversial selection of Matthew Whitaker to replace ousted Attorney General Jeff Sessions faced its first major challenge Tuesday  in federal court from the state of Maryland, which claimed that the appointment is “illegal and unconstitutional.”

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, argued in court documents that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be installed in Whitaker’s place.

“The Constitution and Congress have established vitally important processes for filling high-level vacancies in the federal government,” Frosh said Tuesday. “Few positions are more critical than that of the U.S. attorney general, an office that wields enormous enforcement power and authority over the lives of all Americans.”

Source: Matthew Whitaker: Maryland asks court to replace him with Rosenstein