A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely exercised unconstitutional authority “in multiple ways” in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang’s ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to “delay a premature, final shutdown” of the agency while litigation continues.
His order requires DOGE to reinstate email and system access to current USAID employees and blocks DOGE personnel from taking “any actions relating” to the agency, without express permission of a USAID official with legal authority.
It marks the first time a judge has ruled that Musk is likely exercising enough independent authority to require him to be confirmed by the Senate under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
“The record of his activities to date establishes that his role has been and will continue to be as the leader of DOGE, with the same duties and degree of continuity as if he was formally in that position,’” wrote Chuang, an appointee of former President Obama.
Chuang rejected the Trump administration’s argument that Musk is not the DOGE administrator and is instead merely a senior adviser to the president who has no independent authority.
“If a president could escape Appointments Clause scrutiny by having advisors go beyond the traditional role of White House advisers who communicate the president’s priorities to agency heads and instead exercise significant authority throughout the federal government so as to bypass duly appointed officers, the Appointments Clause would be reduced to nothing more than a technical formality,” the judge wrote.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the administration would appeal, calling the ruling a “miscarriage of justice.”
“Rogue judges are subverting the will of the American people in their attempts to stop President Trump from carrying out his agenda,” she said in a statement. “If these Judges want to force their partisan ideologies across the government, they should run for office themselves.”
DOGE’s leadership had remained a mystery for weeks, with the administration insisting Musk was not a formal part of DOGE. Amid mounting pressure from judges for answers, the White House ultimately announced that Amy Gleason was the group’s interim administrator.
Since Trump took office, DOGE has rapidly implanted itself at agencies across the federal government, with some of its most drastic efforts coming at USAID, which doles out foreign aid around the globe. The administration instituted mass firings and froze payments to contractors, in addition to reviewing contracts on a case-by-case basis that resulted in just 500 awards left intact.
A different federal judge ordered the release of payments owed under certain existing contracts, but he declined to invalidate the individual review that slashed the agency’s awards.
As the administration moved to shutter the agency, 26 current and former employees last month brought the lawsuit claiming Musk and DOGE were acting unconstitutionally. They are represented by State Defenders Democracy Fund, a left-leaning legal organization that has filed many legal challenges against the new administration.
“Today’s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on USAID, the United States’ government, and the Constitution,” Norm Eisen, the group’s executive chair, said in a statement. “They are performing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people USAID serves but also the majority of Americans who count on the stability of our government. This case is a milestone in pushing back on Musk and DOGE’s illegality.”
Similar Appointments Clause lawsuits have also been brought against Musk by Democratic state attorneys general and a group of private organizations, but no judge has yet agreed with their claims.
Tuesday’s injunction only concerns USAID. But the judge took note of Musk’s similar efforts across the federal bureaucracy.
“This record must be considered alongside the fact that Musk appears to have been involved in the shutdown of CFPB headquarters as well, and the evidence that shows or strongly suggests that Musk and DOGE, despite their allegedly advisory roles, have taken other unilateral actions without any apparent authorization from agency officials,” Chuang wrote.
