A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency likely ran afoul of the Constitution in its attacks on USAID.
U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang had no time for DOGE's stone-throwing and hand-hiding. He took Musk on directly in his ruling, saying that the Tesla CEO and billionaire adviser to Donald Trump acted as an officer of the United States government without ever being appointed. In his ruling, he said that Musk and DOGE "likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways" when they chose "to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis."
Chuang noted the quasi-legal sheen that the Trump administration has put on Musk's role, before dismissing it outright.
"On paper, Musk has no formal legal authority relating to the decisions at issue, even if he is actually exercising significant authority on governmental matters," Chuang wrote, saying allowing it to continue give the Trump administration an "end-run" around the Constitution.
"If a president could escape Appointments Clause scrutiny by having advisers go beyond the traditional role of White House advisors who communicate the president's priority to agency heads... [the clause] would be reduced to nothing more than a technical formality," he wrote.
Chuang said that Musk and DOGE "harmed...the public interest" by overstepping the executive branch's authority to shutter agencies created by an act of Congress. He ordered Musk and DOGE to grant USAID employees their email access, to begin the process of allowing USAID employees back into their offices and to halt any further dismantling of the agency.
Musk shared a critical post about the ruling on X. He didn't comment on the case beyond agreeing with the bashing of "the left" put forth by conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
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