Judge….Musk likely acted illegally in the USAID shutdown….

They ARE coming for YOU Elon…..

Your actions may have been right for Twitter….

But NOT for a government….

 

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely exercised unconstitutional authority “in multiple ways” in dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang’s ruling in favor of 26 current and former USAID workers seeks to “delay a premature, final shutdown” of the agency while litigation continues.

His order requires DOGE to reinstate email and system access to current USAID employees and blocks DOGE personnel from taking “any actions relating” to the agency, without express permission of a USAID official with legal authority.

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’s Appointments Clause. …

….

Chuang rejected the Trump administration’s argument that Musk is not the DOGE administrator and is instead merely a senior adviser to the president who has no independent authority.

“If a president could escape Appointments Clause scrutiny by having advisors go beyond the traditional role of White House advisers who communicate the president’s 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,” the judge wrote….

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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….

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Tuesday’s injunction only concerns USAID. But the judge took note of Musk’s similar efforts across the federal bureaucracy.

“This 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,” Chuang wrote. …

More….

Note….

Judges ARE ruling consistently AGAINST the early Musk crowing that HE was actually making cuts thru the Office of Personnel Management , something that even Trump’s Admin has changed under pressure for Dept. and Agencies heads…..