WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development by billionaire Elon Musk鈥檚 Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution, a federal judge ruled Tuesday as he indefinitely blocked DOGE from making further cuts to the agency.
The order requires the to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those put on administrative leave, though it stops short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency.
In one of the first DOGE lawsuits against Musk himself, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland rejected the Trump administration鈥檚 position that Musk is merely President adviser.
Musk鈥檚 public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has 鈥渇irm control over DOGE,鈥 the judge found pointing to an online post where Musk said he had 鈥渇ed USAID into the wood chipper.鈥
The judge said it鈥檚 likely that USAID is no longer capable of performing some of its statutorily required functions.
鈥淭aken together, these facts support the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated,鈥 Chuang wrote in the preliminary injunction.
The lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their attorneys said the ruling 鈥渆ffectively halts or reverses鈥 many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency.
The administration has said that DOGE is searching for and rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government, consistent with the campaign message that helped Trump win the 2024 election. The White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.
Musk, his team and Trump political appointee Pete Marocco have played a central role in the two-month dismantling of USAID. In one instance in early February, the administration placed the agency’s top security officials on forced leave after they tried to block DOGE workers from accessing USAID’s classified and sensitive documents.
The administration, with Musk’s and DOGE’s support, went on to order all but a fraction of the agency’s staffers off the job through forced leaves and firings, and terminated what the State Department said was at least 83% of USAID’s program contracts.
The moves were part of a broader push by Musk and the Trump administration to eradicate the six-decade-old foreign assistance agency and most of its work overseas.
on Inauguration Day issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all , charging that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.
Democratic lawmakers and other supporters of USAID have argued Trump had no authority to withhold funding that Congress already approved.
Chuang said DOGE’s and Musk’s fast-moving destruction of USAID likely harmed the public interest by depriving elected lawmakers of their 鈥渃onstitutional authority to decide whether, when and how to close down an agency created by Congress.鈥
The lawsuit was filed by the State Democracy Defenders Fund. Norm Eisen, the nonprofit’s executive chair, said the ruling is a milestone in pushback to DOGE and the first to find that Musk鈥檚 actions violate the Constitution鈥檚 Appointments Clause, which presidential approval and Senate confirmation for certain public officials.
鈥淭hey 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,” he said in a statement.
Oxfam America’s Abby Maxman in a statement urged all staffing and funding to be reinstated. 鈥淭he funding freeze and program cuts are already having life or death consequences for millions around the world,鈥 said the chief executive of the humanitarian group.
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Associated Press writers Chris Megerian and Ellen Knickmeyer contributed reporting.
