A federal judge in Maryland on Tuesday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service from taking further actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development and ordered that steps be taken to allow the agency to reoccupy its headquarters inside the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C., should the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Musk’s actions win their case.
The judge also ordered DOGE to restore email and other access to thousands of employees who have been cut off from the agency, including those stationed in dangerous areas with their jobs in limbo. He prohibited DOGE from disclosing USAID employees’ personal information outside the agency and said any other action relating to USAID must be made with the “express authorization of a USAID official with legal authority.”
The preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang in a federal court in Maryland, though it leaves a door open for the Trump administration to continue its elimination of USAID, marks another blow to the administration’s efforts to dramatically reduce the size of the government after other federal court orders to reinstate thousands of fired federal workers. Chuang’s ruling remains in effect until a further court order, which could come at another point in the lawsuit or after a trial.
On Monday, the Trump administration moved to reinstate thousands of probationary workers after another judge in Maryland ruled that those firings had been conducted illegally, a decision that is now before a federal appeals court.
The lawsuit was brought by the State Democracy Defenders Fund on behalf of more than two dozen USAID workers named only as plaintiffs J. Does 1-26. They allege that Musk’s assumption of vast authority over federal agencies is “unprecedented in U.S. history” and, under the Constitution, could be exercised only by someone who has been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate as an “Officer of the United States.” The lawsuit also asserts that DOGE’s moves to eliminate USAID violate the Constitution, because the agency was created by Congress and only Congress can do away with it.
In a 68-page legal opinion accompanying the injunction, Chuang agreed that the Trump administration has acted to effectively dismantle USAID and concluded that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their claim that those actions violate the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine.
“Where Congress has prescribed the existence of USAID in statute pursuant to its legislative powers under Article I, the President’s Article II power to take care that the laws are faithfully executed does not provide authority for the unilateral, drastic actions taken to dismantle the agency,” Chuang wrote.
The judge’s order, however, applies only to Musk and DOGE — not to USAID officials themselves. Chuang specified that although the dismantling of USAID — even by USAID officials — “likely violates” the Constitution, USAID officials are not parties to the case and not subject to his order. Justice Department lawyers have argued that it is USAID officials, not Musk or DOGE, who have conducted the mass personnel and contract terminations.
Though the lawsuit is not over, the State Democracy Defenders Fund heralded the judge’s ruling while the White House and Musk attacked Chuang.
“Today’s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on USAID, the U.S. government and the Constitution,” said Norm Eisen, executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, in a statement Tuesday. “They are performing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people USAID serves but 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.”
A White House spokeswoman responded to Chuang’s order by saying he is among “Rogue judges” who are “subverting the will of the American people in their attempts to stop President Trump from carrying out his agenda.”
“If these Judges want to force their partisan ideologies across the government, they should run for office themselves,” said Anna Kelly, deputy press secretary for the White House, in a statement. “The Trump Administration will appeal this miscarriage of justice and fight back against all activist judges intruding on the separation of powers.”
The lawsuit alleges a “predictable and reckless slash-and-burn pattern” employed by Musk and his team at DOGE that has rendered the agency — created in 1961 to provide economic aid and development assistance to impoverished countries — ineffective and left remaining employees and contractors worried for their safety and well-being after abrupt contract cancellations.
One of the plaintiffs, a USAID employee stationed in a high-risk part of Central America, lost the ability to pay phone and electricity bills because USAID’s payment system was shut down, jeopardizing the employee’s security system, the lawsuit says. Another plaintiff, a USAID contractor, has been left wondering whether to pull children out of school during the middle of the year to abruptly depart the country they are in.
By early February, almost 90 percent of the 4,765 direct-hire employees at USAID were on or slated for placement on administrative leave, according to Chuang’s opinion. Trump administration officials showcased the moves by removing the agency’s seal from the Ronald Reagan building and, then, shuttering those offices.
Musk and his team at DOGE also attempted to gain access to core government operation systems that is forbidden by privacy and security laws for individuals who have no clearance to do so, which further jeopardized employees’ safety, the lawsuit says.
As their attempts have met with resistance by agency officers or staff, DOGE team members have resorted to threats — amplified by Musk on his X social media platform — or worked to ensure that those officials are placed on leave or altogether removed, the complaint says.
Justice Department lawyers representing Musk and DOGE countered that they have no formal authority over USAID or other federal agencies. USAID’s own leaders, not Musk, have been responsible for actions such as stoppages in spending and placing employees on administrative leave, DOJ lawyers say.
“As a Senior Advisor, Mr. Musk has no greater authority than other senior White House advisers,” the Justice Department argued in a court filing, “and like them, has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself; he can only advise the President and communicate the President’s directives.”
In his opinion, Chuang found that the facts available to him so far support the conclusion that Musk exercised authority reserved for someone confirmed by the Senate, at least with regard to forcing the closure of USAID headquarters.
Chuang’s decision comes after a federal judge presiding over a similar case in Washington declined to immediately block Musk from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan found in mid-February that there were legitimate questions about Musk’s authority but said there wasn’t enough evidence of grave legal harm to justify a temporary restraining order. That decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic states.
Trump named Musk as the head of DOGE, a new government office that initially promised to comb through the whole federal bureaucracy searching for deep spending cuts. Since then, Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources.
In late February, Musk engaged in a power struggle with federal agencies, primarily led by Trump-appointed Cabinet secretaries, over whether employees must comply with a Musk directive to email lists of what they had done in the past week.
This month, however, as courts and lawmakers have pushed back against DOGE’s efforts, Trump directed his Cabinet members to be more involved in deciding which government workers are shed, rather than waiting for directives from Musk.
Justice Department lawyers arguing on behalf of Musk have attempted to combat the allegation that he is exercising powers reserved for Senate-confirmed officials. The lawyers say Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Peter Marocco, a Trump loyalist now overseeing USAID, are wielding actual power over the agency, while Musk is merely an influential presidential adviser.
In a sworn declaration accompanying a DOJ court filing, Marocco testified that he and Rubio “have ultimate authority” over decisions at USAID, and “DOGE Team cannot legally direct me to do anything regarding personnel, funding, or the like.”
Chuang, during a late-February hearing, expressed skepticism of Marocco’s claim, given public statements from Trump that he put Musk in charge and that they were shutting down USAID.
“Should I believe the president, or should I believe Mr. Marocco?” Chuang asked.
During an address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, Trump again asserted that DOGE “is headed by Elon Musk.”
Chuang, who was nominated by President Barack Obama, twice halted Trump travel bans in 2017 that barred entry for citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries. In those decisions, Chuang gave weight to Trump’s own public statements on the campaign trail and on social media, which the judge said suggested the bans were intended to discriminate against Muslims despite the administration’s lawyer’s claims otherwise.
Emily Davies contributed to this report.
