Efforts by Elon Musk and his team to permanently shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the Constitution “in multiple ways” and robbed Congress of its authority to oversee the dissolution of an agency it created, a federal judge found on Tuesday.
The ruling, by Judge Theodore D. Chuang of U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, appeared to be the first time a judge has moved to rein in Mr. Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency directly. It was based on the finding that Mr. Musk has acted as a U.S. officer without having been properly appointed to that role by President Trump.
Judge Chuang wrote that a group of unnamed aid workers who had sued to stop the demolition of U.S.A.I.D. and its programs was likely to succeed in the lawsuit. He agreed with the workers’ contention that Mr. Musk’s rapid assertion of power over executive agencies was likely in violation of the Constitution’s appointments clause.
The judge also ordered that agency operations be partially restored, though that reprieve is likely to be temporary. He ordered Mr. Musk’s team to reinstate email access to all U.S.A.I.D. employees, including those on paid leave. He also ordered the team to submit a plan for employees to reoccupy a federal office from which they were evicted last month, and he barred Mr. Musk’s team from engaging in any further work “related to the shutdown of U.S.A.I.D.”
Given that most of the agency’s work force and contracts were already terminated, it was not immediately clear what effect the judge’s ruling would have. Only a skeleton crew of workers is still employed by the agency.
And while the order barred Mr. Musk from dealing with the agency personally, it suggested that he or others could continue to do so after receiving “the express authorization of a U.S.A.I.D. official with legal authority to take or approve the action.”
As early as Feb. 3, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had assumed control of the agency and had directed a variety of cuts in his own authority. The judge noted that Mr. Rubio could declare his intent to permanently close the agency’s headquarters within 14 days of his order, and the offices would remain closed.
Last week, Mr. Rubio said in an announcement on social media that he had canceled 83 percent of the agency’s programs, and that the State Department would administer the roughly 1,000 grants and contracts remaining.
“Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform,” he wrote.
Judge Chuang said that it appeared clear that Mr. Rubio had effectively surrendered control over the agency’s operations to Mr. Musk in a move that essentially resulted in the elimination of the agency.
“Defendants also likely lack congressional authorization to take even the primary specific steps toward abolition of U.S.A.I.D. already conducted,” he wrote. “In relation to the most recent appropriation for U.S.A.I.D., Congress placed certain restrictions on any ‘reorganization, redesign or other plan’ relating to U.S.A.I.D., which consists of any actions to ‘expand, eliminate, consolidate or downsize’ the agency or its bureaus or offices.”
The finding that Mr. Musk had personally, and unlawfully, overseen the dismantling of the agency offered a firm rejection of his operation’s authority. In the sternly worded order, Judge Chuang warned that any skirting of its requirements could result in him holding Mr. Musk or members of his team in contempt.
“Today’s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on U.S.A.I.D., the U.S. government and the Constitution,” said Norm Eisen, executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, a group representing the aid workers. “They are performing surgery with a chain saw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people U.S.A.I.D. 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.”
Lawyers representing the government had previously argued in that case that the Department of Government Efficiency, or the U.S. DOGE Service, was in fact not headed by Mr. Musk and that he and his associates were serving in an advisory capacity only. They said Mr. Musk had no authority to steer decisions on his own.
But Judge Chuang appeared to dismiss those claims entirely, noting that Mr. Musk had targeted and celebrated actions to dramatically downsize U.S.A.I.D., including the firing of a vast majority of its workers and the cancellation of most of its contracts and grants.
“DOGE has taken numerous actions without any apparent advanced approval by agency leadership,” the judge wrote, reeling off a list of examples at the Education Department, the National Institutes of Health and the Energy Department, where Mr. Musk’s associates apparently recommended cuts on their own.
The judge noted that Mr. Musk, during a cabinet meeting he attended at the White House last month, acknowledged that his team had accidentally slashed funding for Ebola prevention administered by U.S.A.I.D. He also cited numerous instances in which Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk have both spoken publicly about their reliance on Mr. Musk’s team to effectuate goals like eliminating billions in federal contracts.
And he cited Mr. Musk’s own comments on social media taking credit for the aid agency’s dismantling. On X, the social media platform he owns, Mr. Musk wrote in February that it was time for U.S.A.I.D. to “die,” that his team was in the process of shutting the agency down, and that he had “spent the weekend feeding U.S.A.I.D. into the wood chipper.”
The judge also quoted Mr. Musk talking about the need to “delete entire agencies” and pointed to a post Mr. Musk shared stating “DOGE can now DISMANTLE U.S.A.I.D.” after a judge lifted an order blocking the agency from carrying out mass firings.
“Taken together, these facts support the conclusion that U.S.A.I.D. has effectively been eliminated,” Judge Chuang wrote.
“Based on the present record, the only individuals known to be associated with the decisions to initiate a shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. by permanently closing U.S.A.I.D. headquarters and taking down its website are Musk and DOGE team members,” he added.
