A federal judge in Washington D.C. refused to grant a request brought by 14 attorneys general to block Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing private information across a number of agencies and laying off huge segments of the federal workforce. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, acknowledged DOGE was causing confusion in her ruling on Tuesday, but would not put a halt to the destruction of the country.
“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,” Chutkan wrote. “But the ‘possibility’ that defendants may take actions that irreparably harm plaintiffs ‘is not enough.’”
Chutkan was even wiling to concede that Musk doesn’t actually have the authority to be acting in the way that he is. But that wasn’t going to make her to put a halt to DOGE rooting around through at least seven government agencies, including OPM, and the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Transportation.
“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,’” she wrote. “Bypassing this ‘significant structural safeguard of the constitutional scheme,’ Musk has rapidly taken steps to fundamentally reshape the Executive Branch.”
The judge seemed open to the argument that people would be harmed, but an emergency order wasn’t warranted, she wrote.
“Terminating thousands of federal employees may cause extreme harm to the individual employees, and potentially the institution writ large,” Chutkan argued. “But ‘harm that might befall unnamed third parties does not satisfy the irreparable harm requirement in the context of emergency injunctive relief, which must instead be connected specifically to the parties before the Court.’”
Chutkan also acknowledged that there were media reports about Musk’s actions, but said it wasn’t enough for the court to learn about the facts from media reports.
“Plaintiffs ask the court to take judicial notice of widespread media reports that DOGE has taken or will soon take certain actions, such as mass terminations,” Chutkan wrote. “But these reports cannot substitute for ‘specific facts in an affidavit or a verified complaint’ that ‘clearly show that immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage will result.’”
The media reports Chutkan is referring to are the countless stories about mass firings that are still happening right now at agencies like NASA, FDA, IRS, and so many more.
“The court may take judicial notice of news articles for their existence, but not for the truth of the statements asserted therein,” Chutkan wrote.
The ruling, which is available online from Court Listener, will no doubt appear in history books as a major turning point. The U.S. is currently being looted by oligarchs like Musk, all with the blessing of President Donald Trump and a number of attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice.
The lawsuit was brought by Attorneys General in New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, California, Nevada, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii. And their case was pretty straightforward in laying out the destruction Musk has been enacting.
“In recent weeks, Defendant Elon Musk, with President Donald J. Trump’s approval, has roamed through the federal government unraveling agencies, accessing sensitive data, and causing mass chaos and confusion for state and local governments, federal employees, and the American people,” the lawsuit states.
Chutkan’s ruling suggested there may be some possibility to put a halt to Musk’s destruction in the future if attorneys present more evidence. But it’s a lot easier to fire people than it is to rebuild things have been torn down. More than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration were fired last week until someone apparently told the DOGE boys those are the guys who are protecting the nation’s nuclear weapons. The Trump regime wanted to rehire many of the workers, but couldn’t find contact information for many of the people who were let go, according to CNN.
It’d be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.
