A federal judge on Tuesday determined that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency likely used unconstitutional authority “in multiple ways” in the demise of the US Agency for International Development ( USAID ). The agency’s 26 employees who sought to “delay a unnecessary, last shutdown” of the company while litigation is raging were the subject of Theodore Chuang’s decision.
He directed Expand to restore email and program access for present USAID employees in his order, and he directed DOGE to stop DOGE from “anything” relating to the agency without the express consent of a USAID official in possession of legal authority.
According to Chuang, an appointment of former President Obama,” the history of his activities to time establishes that his part has been and will continue to be as the head of DOGE, with the same duties and degree of continuity as if he was fully in that place.”
Chuang refuted the claim made by the Trump administration that Musk is simply a senior adviser to the president without any independent expert and not the Smart administrator.
The Appointments Clause would be reduced to nothing more than a technical formality, the judge wrote.” If a leader could escape Appointments Clause attention by having advisors go beyond the traditional part of White House advisers, who speak the government’s priorities to agency heads and instead training significant authority throughout the federal government so as to pass duly appointed officers, then the nominations clause may be reduced to nothing more than a technical formality.”
What will USAID do next?
The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to the court order, but the administration is likely to challenge it because Donald Trump called the USAID spending bogus, as well as Elon Musk’s brainchild, and the administration is likely to challenge it.
This is not the first court order to challenge the Trump administration’s decision regarding USAID. Amir H. Ali, a federal judge, had earlier ruled that Trump overstepped his constitutional authority by halting USAID’s international work. However, the judge did not order the renewal of the contracts.
