# Kajmowicz v. Whitaker > [!note] Stub > This is a short entry that hasn't been fully written yet. **A Third Circuit opinion of 21 July 2022** (No. 21-2434; Judges Hardiman, Rendell and Fisher, with Judge Rendell writing and Judge Fisher concurring) upholding the bump-stock rule against a challenge to [[Matt Whitaker]]'s authority to promulgate it while serving as acting [[Attorney General]]. The court never decided whether Whitaker's service was lawful. It did not have to, because of how it read the [[Federal Vacancies Reform Act]]'s definition of a "function or duty" at 5 U.S.C. § 3348(a)(2)(A). The rulemaking authority under the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act is not required by statute to be exercised by the Attorney General *alone* — it had in fact been subdelegated to the [[ATF]] Director — so it was not a function or duty of the office within the meaning of the section. The definition turns on what a statute "requires, not what it permits," and a statute silent on delegation is presumptively delegable. The consequence is the mechanic that makes the section narrow: because the rulemaking fell outside § 3348, the bar in § 3348(d)(2) on **ratifying** a void act did not apply either, and a later Attorney General's ratification "cured any defects in the rule related to Whitaker's service." The complaint was dismissed. Judge Fisher's concurrence would have added a further requirement — that the authority not merely be delegable but have actually been delegated. District courts have divided on the same definition, and in [[United States v. Giraud]] (2025) the Third Circuit held that this line of cases governs § 3348 only, not the separate exclusivity question under § 3347. ## See also - [[How an Acting Official Is Installed]] — the Act as a process, with this definition at Stage F - [[Federal Vacancies Reform Act]] · [[United States v. Giraud]] · [[NLRB v. SW General]] - [[Matt Whitaker]] · [[ATF]] · [[Administrative State]] · [[Delegation of Authority]]