City Attorney Dennis Herrera said he sent an “unprecedented” letter to the Department of Justice Monday questioning the legality of President Trump’s appointment of Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker.

Whitaker served as the chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who resigned last week at President Trump’s request. At issue is that Whitaker was never confirmed by the Senate, and his appointment may not be in line with the Constitution, Herrera said.

The appointment could also impact the four San Francisco court cases pending against Sessions, Herrera said.

“I’ve been in office for 17 years. There hasn’t been the need to do this until now,” Herrera said in a statement. The office is seeking “legal justification” for the appointment, otherwise “San Francisco may be forced to move the court to obtain additional guidance,” the letter said.

The cases pending against Sessions: One questioning the legality of Trump’s executive order targeting sanctuary cities; two about conditions on public safety grants that the Trump administration tried to use to deny law enforcement funding to sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco; and a fourth about the rescission of six significant civil rights documents that outlined certain protections for populations such as people of color and those with disabilities.

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

“The American people need to have faith that the head of their Justice Department lawfully holds the job,” Herrera said in a statement. “No Cabinet position demands more scrupulous fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law than the Attorney General.”

— Trisha Thadani

Little change in vote totals: The leaders in the five San Francisco Board of Supervisors races remained the same Monday as the Department of Elections made its way through 23,000 more ballots during the holiday. The results are based on Monday’s tally under San Francisco’s ranked-choice system, which allows voters to designate their second and third choices. The department still has 56,000 ballots left to count.

Here is where each district election stood as of Monday evening:

District Two: Current Supervisor Catherine Stefani leads with 53 percent of the vote to BART Director Nick Josefowitz’s 47 percent. There were 1,697 votes between them.

District Four: Longtime labor activist Gordon Mar held a wide lead over Jessica Ho, who conceded Thursday. Mar received 57 percent of the vote to Ho’s 43 percent. They were separated by 2,758 votes.

District Six: Matt Haney, a school board member, had 5,474 votes more than his opponent, Christine Johnson, a former planning commissioner. Haney captured 64 percent of the vote, compared with Johnson, who received 36 percent.

District Eight: Current Supervisor Rafael Mandelman had 92 percent of the vote.

District 10: Shamann Walton, former school board president, held 63 percent of the vote over Tony Kelly’s 37 percent. There were 4,509 votes separating them.

The Department of Elections is unsure when it will finish counting the ballots. But by law, it must complete the count by Dec. 6, which is 30 days after the election.

— Trisha Thadani

Email: cityinsider@sfchronicle.com, tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFCityInsider @TrishaThadani