Elon Musk and DOGE Found By Federal Judge to Have Violated the Constitution ‘In Multiple Ways’

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A federal judge found on Tuesday that Elon Musk and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) may have violated the constitution by moving to shut down USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development).

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled in favor of a group current and former USAID employees and ordered Musk and DOGE to reinstate payments, security notifications, and access email and all other electronic systems to USAID employees.

According to Chuang, it would be up to Congress to decide “whether, when, and how” to close USAID and DOGE’s actions deprived of the Congress of their constitutional authority.

Chuang, appointed under President Barack Obama, identified Musk as the “leader” of DOGE.

“The record of his activities to date establishes that his role has been and will continue to be as the leader of DOGE, with the same duties and degree of continuity as if he was formally in that position,” he wrote.

The judge concluded in his 68-page order:

The Court finds that Defendants’ actions taken to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis, including its apparent decision to permanently close USAID headquarters without the approval of a duly appointed USAID officer, likely violated the Constitution in multiple ways, and that these actions harmed not only Plaintiffs, but also the public interest, because 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.

DOGE’s move to shut down USAID was the first major action from the group which is tasked with finding trillions in federal spending to cut.

Musk and DOGE are ordered to comply with the judge’s partial injunction within seven days. The judge ordered that personal information not be shared about any employees and DOGE cannot take action to shut down USAID.