{"id":39889,"date":"2025-03-18T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39889"},"modified":"2025-03-18T22:50:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T03:50:56","slug":"judge-finds-elon-musk-likely-acted-unconstitutionally-in-shuttering-usaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39889","title":{"rendered":"Judge finds Elon Musk likely acted unconstitutionally in shuttering USAID"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A federal judge ruled Tuesday<\/u><\/a> that Elon Musk\u2002<\/u><\/a>and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely exercised unconstitutional authority \u201cin multiple ways\u201d in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to \u201cdelay a premature, final shutdown\u201d of the agency while litigation continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His order requires DOGE to reinstate email and system access to current USAID employees and blocks DOGE personnel from taking \u201cany actions relating\u201d to the agency, without express permission of a USAID official with legal authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Appointments Clause.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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,\u2019\u201d wrote Chuang, an appointee of former President Obama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chuang rejected the Trump administration\u2019s argument that Musk is not the DOGE administrator and is instead merely a senior adviser to the president who has no independent authority.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a president could escape Appointments Clause scrutiny by having advisors go beyond the traditional role of White House advisers who communicate the president\u2019s 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,\u201d the judge wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the administration would appeal, calling the ruling a \u201cmiscarriage of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRogue judges are subverting the will of the American people in their attempts to stop President Trump from carrying out his agenda,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cIf these Judges want to force their partisan ideologies across the government, they should run for office themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOGE\u2019s leadership had remained a mystery for weeks<\/u><\/a>, 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\u2019s interim administrator<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A different federal judge ordered the release<\/u><\/a> of payments owed under certain existing contracts, but he declined to invalidate the individual review that slashed the agency\u2019s awards.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on USAID, the United States\u2019 government, and the Constitution,\u201d Norm Eisen, the group\u2019s executive chair, said in a statement. \u201cThey 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\u2019s illegality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\u2019s injunction only concerns USAID. But the judge took note of Musk\u2019s similar efforts across the federal bureaucracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d Chuang wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Elon Musk\u2002and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely exercised unconstitutional authority \u201cin multiple ways\u201d in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).  U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang\u2019s\u2002ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to \u201cdelay a premature, final shutdown\u201d of the agency while litigation continues.  His order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2574,3070,1700,32723,32206],"class_list":["post-39889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-closed","tag-elon-musk","tag-judge","tag-unconstitution","tag-usaid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39891,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39889\/revisions\/39891"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}