Judge shreds DOGE for violating the Constitution 'in multiple ways'

People rally in support of fired USAID workers during a protest on Feb. 28, 2025, near the USAID headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Another day, another judge handing another defeat to Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang released a 68-page decision in favor of unnamed current and former U.S. Agency for International Development employees and contractors who challenged Musk and DOGE’s efforts to illegally close down the department.

In his decision, Chuang wrote that the defendants “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways” and that “they deprived the public's elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”

Chuang ordered Musk and DOGE to:

Flowers and a sign sit outside the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development on Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C.

• Restore “access to email, payment, security notification, and all other electronic systems, including restoring deleted emails, for all current USAID employees and personal services contractors ("PSCs"), whether in active status or on administrative leave”—within seven days.

• Not disclose any personal information of current or former USAID workers.

• Not engage in activities that would shut down USAID, such as firing employees. 

Chuang also gave Musk and DOGE two weeks to submit a plan that will let USAID return to its headquarters “in the event of a final ruling in favor of Plaintiffs.”

The decision follows a federal court ruling that determined President Donald Trump did not have the authority to freeze the approximately $60 billion in foreign assistance funding Congress had earmarked for USAID and the State Department. 

Musk and DOGE’s haphazard and destructive assault on federal agencies, starting with the firing of USAID’s inspector general, has been met with cheers from U.S. adversaries, all while creating the kinds of inefficiencies the GOP pretends to care about. 

This latest setback for Trump and Musk comes just days after another federal judge found that thousands of workers at the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Treasury and Veterans Affairs were illegally fired during the DOGE-led purges of our government.