On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to immediately stop shutting down the primary US aid agency.
A US court has ordered Elon Musk to immediately stop shutting off USAID.
The dissolution of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by Musk and DOGE “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways,” according to District Court Judge Theodore Chuang.
Chuang’s decision came in response to a complaint filed by former and present USAID contractors and employees contesting the billionaire’s legal right to reduce federal agency employment and spending, which was appointed by President Donald Trump.
According to the US Constitution’s Appointments Clause, they contended, Musk could not act without Senate confirmation.
According to the judge, permitting Musk to maintain his vast influence over the government “would open the door to an end-run around the Appointments Clause” and turn it into “nothing more than a technical formality.”
Chuang said that Musk and DOGE’s activities had infringed upon Congress’s power to determine when and how to shut down USAID, where the majority of the staff had been laid off or put on leave since January. Congress established the agency in 1961.
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States was discontinuing 83 percent of USAID’s projects, which provide emergency and health assistance in almost 120 nations. USAID is a global humanitarian aid organization.
The judge’s decision was the most recent legal blow to Trump’s campaign to reduce federal spending and workforce. Recently, a different judge mandated that hundreds of probationary employees across several agencies who had been let go by Musk’s DOGE be hired back.
Chuang mandated that current USAID staff and contractors be granted access to email and other technological systems once more.
He said that unless the court is notified by USAID’s acting administrator or another U.S. authorized authority that the facility is being permanently closed, the agency should be permitted to reoccupy its headquarters in Washington.
In January, Trump issued an executive order calling for the suspension of all US foreign aid in order to evaluate international spending.
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