Judge says Musk and DOGE ‘likely violated’ constitution in USAID shutdown

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attempted to dismantle an organization tasked with distributing foreign aid, but a federal district judge in Maryland determined otherwise.

In response to a complaint made by 26 US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees and contractors, Judge Theodore Chuang issued the preliminary ruling on Tuesday.

According to Chuang, “The Court finds that defendants’ actions taken to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis, including their apparent decision to permanently close USAID headquarters without the approval of a duly appointed USAID Officer, likely violated the United States Constitution in a number of ways.”

He continued, not only did the plaintiffs suffer, but the “public interest” was also at risk.

According to Chuang, DOGE and Musk “deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to dissolve an agency that Congress established.”

In response to that finding, the judge granted a temporary injunction to stop DOGE and Musk from cutting jobs with USAID, ending contracts, closing buildings, and destroying USAID equipment.

The restrictions will help to maintain the status quo and prevent USAID from closing its doors too soon, Chuang wrote.

Musk, who has had a ambiguous role in the government but has had a significant impact as a result of his close ties with US President Donald Trump, suffered a significant blow.

As a “special government employee,” a position frequently held by outside advisers, and one of the wealthiest men in the world, Musk is a tech billionaire.

He has, however, spearheaded DOGE’s extensive effort to restructure the federal government by reducing its workforce, ending contracts, and attempting to close all of its branches.

One of the first DOGE crosshairs was USAID. A key component of USAID’s mission was a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid upon its second-term presidential decree, which was issued on January 20.

By the time the US’s main arm for distributing foreign aid abroad was established in 1961 as a result of a law passed by Congress.

However, only aid that was in line with the president’s foreign policy could continue under Trump’s order.

Musk served as the campaign’s sole representative for the end of USAID. On February 2, he wrote, “USAID is a criminal organization,” without providing any proof, on his social media platform X. It has reached its death.

Musk also wrote a message on X later that day, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” [Had]gone to some fantastic parties. Instead, did that.

The agency’s Washington, DC, headquarters effectively closed by the end of February, with employees only having 15 minutes to collect their belongings. On average, 1,600 workers were fired, and 4,700 took leave of absence.

Eventually, USAID Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed that 83 percent of all agreements had been terminated.

Musk and Trump have repeatedly charged departments and bodies of “waste” and “fraud” without providing evidence to support their repeated claims.

Judge Chuang ruled that Musk’s actions “likely violate the constitutional principle of separation of powers” because USAID was established as an independent agency under the Foreign Assistance Act.

According to Chuang, DOGE was required to re-establish access to USAID employees’ electronic systems as part of the injunction on Tuesday, and it also demanded that the department re-establish any deleted emails.

However, Chuang, a former president of the United States, was quickly criticized for his temporary injunction.

Source: Aljazeera