A federal judge aimed sharp criticism at the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its de facto leader, Elon Musk, as he ruled on Tuesday afternoon that its shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways.”
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang’s ruling, however, Politico reported, “appears to permit the Trump administration to ratify and maintain the draconian cuts — as long as they are ordered by USAID’s official leadership, rather than by Musk or his allies at DOGE.”
Judge Chuang blocked DOGE “from further cuts to the agency,” the Associated Press reported. He also ordered that “email and computer access” be restored “to all employees of USAID, including those who were placed on administrative leave.”
In his damning 68-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang wrote that “the ‘Department of
Government Efficiency,’ or ‘DOGE,’ has sent teams of personnel to numerous federal departments and agencies, taken control of their computer systems, and in many instances, taken the lead in terminating numerous contracts and employees.”
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He charged that “DOGE and its leader, Elon Musk,” have “played a leading role in actions taken to shut down and dismantle” USAID, “which have included permanently closing its headquarters, taking down its website, and engaging in mass terminations of contracts, grants, and personnel.”
Noting that President Trump himself “has identified” Elon Musk as “the leader of DOGE,” Judge Chuang wrote that DOGE “has taken numerous actions without any apparent advanced approval by agency leadership.”
Judge Chuang ruled that Elon Musk’s and DOGE’s “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 United States 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.”
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) blasted Judge Chuang.
“This is more of your Trump derangement syndrome. This is more of these activist judges,” Senator Blackburn declared. “So here you have a judge who is standing up for wasting taxpayer money. It is not the judge’s money, it is not the court’s money. This is money that hardworking taxpayers have earned and sent to Washington, DC.”
“And if they’re going to decide, they don’t want to pay for Sesame Street in Iraq, or DEI education in another country, or trans surgeries in another country,” she claimed.
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On Saturday, The New York Times in an extensive, interactive report revealed, “An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.”
“An estimated 500,000 people could die within a year without American funding for vaccines,” the report added. ” An estimated 550,000 people could die within a year without American funding for food aid.”
Also, nearly 300,00 could die from Malaria, 310,000 from tuberculosis, the Times reported.
The World Health Organization (WHO has estimated that the USAID shutdown, as THEM reported, “could cause as many as 10 million additional HIV cases and three million HIV-related deaths.”
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