Is Elon Musk running DOGE into chaos? Trump and Democrats lawyer up

Democrats are not happy with Musk and DOGE’s access to federal data. To that end, they have filed a lawsuit calling the billionaire an “agent of chaos” in the federal government. They say the billionaire has been given virtually unchecked authority without proper legal authorization and supervision of his authority.

The Trump administration has said that Musk does not have the power that people think. Both Trump and Musk have said that Musk is responsible for DOGE’s work cutting back on federal agencies. In fact, when Trump spoke about DOGE at a joint press conference last week, he mentioned that Musk is a “successful guy, and that’s why we want him doing this.”

However, according to a court filing, Office of Administration Director Joshua Fisher said, “Mr Musk is an employee of the white house office. He holds a position of a non-career special government employee (SGE).”

He added, “The US DOGE service is a component of the executive office of the president. The US DOGE service temporary organization is within the US DOGE service. Both are separate from the white house office. He is not an employee of the US DOGE service or the US DOGE service temporary organisation. Mr. Musk is not the US DOGE service administrator.”

DOJ lawyers have also said in court that Musk doesn’t have any formal or actual authority to make any government decisions himself. They also noted that there are no examples of Musk being given formal authority to exercise the sovereign power of the United States.

Musk has been behind broad cuts throughout the federal government. He has also been vocal about DOGE’s operations on social media. 

Federal judge declines Democratic attorneys request 

Judge Tanya Chutkan, a federal judge, declined the request made by Democratic attorneys to temporarily block Elon Musk and his DOGE from accessing federal data. However, the judge also said she didn’t trust what the Trump government said about Musk and his DOGE powers. 

Democrat lawyers also asked the judge to stop Musk and DOGE from firing or putting workers on involuntary leave. However, the judge said that they had to show that they would suffer immediate, irreversible harm without a temporary restraining order. She added that the state hadn’t done that. 

Judge Chutkan said, “The court is aware that DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion for Plaintiffs and many of their agencies and residents […]  “It remains ‘uncertain’ when and how the catalog of state programs that Plaintiffs identify will suffer.”

The judge also explained that the states’ main case against Musk is strong. However, their claims at this point were not strong enough to meet the standard for the court to take emergency action.

She wrote in the filing, “Plaintiffs raise a colorable Appointments Clause claim with serious implications. Musk has not been nominated by the President nor confirmed by the U.S. Senate, as constitutionally required for officers who exercise ‘significant authority pursuant to the laws of the United States […] But even a strong merits argument cannot secure a temporary restraining order at this juncture.”

The judge, however, warned the defense counsel, saying, “Defense counsel is reminded of their duty to make truthful representations to the court.”

Pending lawsuits

Other lawsuits are still being processed. They say that the administration broke privacy laws and other rules by letting people connected to the DOGE agency take control of very restricted government IT systems.

There are cases that have not yet been challenged in court. Musk and DOGE have certainly been controversial since they started. For example, DOGE employees have reportedly accessed information for Medicare and Medicaid and used AI to search sensitive internal data for the Department of Education. 

In addition, Trump has made sweeping executive actions, and many of them haven’t been challenged in court yet. For example, he quit the World Health Organization and withheld federal funding from schools that let transgender women play women’s sports. 

He also put tariffs on China, removed protections around AI, and undid climate change efforts started by Biden. This includes telling federal agencies not to give some money that Congress had approved. 

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