The role of Elon Musk who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is likely a violation of the US Constitution appointment clause, a federal court wrote on Tuesday.
Theodore Chuang, a Judge in the US District Court for the Maryland district, wrote with a thought that there is more than enough evidence – mainly from statements made by Musk and Donald Trump – indicating that the richest man in the world is really acting as Doge’s chief, despite the government’s claim that he is merely a “president’s special adviser”.
Chuang issued an issue in a raised issue against Musk and Doge by unnamed workers at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The judge also wrote that Musk’s actions has taken in that role, such as the closure of USAID – which Musk said he threw into the “Chipper Wood” – so they are also unconstitutional.
“Musk has exercised the current authority in USAID that only a properly named officer can exercise,” he wrote. (United States official is a legal difference determined by the appointment clause.)
Chuang’s opinion comes more than 50 days after Trump took office and allowed Musk to start cutting government agencies with his Doge team. His opinion is the most direct shooting beyond the musk arch and doge between many lawsuits filed over the past two months.
In his opinion, Chuang ordered the restoration of some of the USAID operations and restricted Musk and Doge to take further steps to dismantle the agency.
It is unclear if Musk and Doge will follow that order; Musk and President Trump have spent in recent days posting on social media claiming that judges rule against their actions should be blamed. Trump’s promotion of that idea is so weak with the behavior of the presidents who preceded him that Supreme Court President John Roberts issued a rare public statement by rebuking him.
“For more than two centuries,” Roberts wrote, “it has been proven that blaming is not an appropriate response to disputes over a judicial decision. The normal process of reviewing the appeal exists for that purpose.”
