Elon Musk faces legal challenge over role in Donald Trump's government

A pair of lawsuits filed in federal courts in Washington and Maryland accuse the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive of exercising authority to reshape and dismantle federal agencies

By Zoe Tillman

  Elon Musk is facing the most direct legal challenge to date over the role he’s assumed in the US government, with Democratic state officials and federal employees claiming that President Donald Trump has unconstitutionally delegated vast powers to the billionaire.  

A pair of lawsuits filed on Thursday in federal courts in Washington and Maryland accuse the Tesla Inc. and SpaceX chief executive of exercising authority to reshape and, in some instances, dismantle federal agencies that the US Constitution reserves for high-level officials confirmed by the Senate.

 

The challengers are asking judges to effectively undo what they say are the most significant actions taken by Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency so far, including orchestrating cuts to federal spending, scaling back the size of the federal workforce and accessing agency data and systems. 

 

“Mr. Musk’s seemingly limitless and unchecked power to strip the government of its workforce and eliminate entire departments with the stroke of a pen or click of a mouse would have been shocking to those who won this country’s independence,” Democratic state attorneys general wrote in their complaint. Musk, who was never elected or confirmed, has been given authority that’s only reserved for the president, they said.

 

A White House spokesperson and US Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

 

The Trump administration has faced more than a dozen lawsuits over the past three weeks challenging access by Musk and DOGE to records and internal systems at a number of agencies, as well as a deferred resignation program offered to federal workers that mirrors an offer Musk made to employees of the social media platform X, then Twitter, when he bought it.

 

Trump created DOGE via a Jan. 20 executive order that reorganized an existing White House office, the US Digital Service, and officially tasked the team with modernizing technology across government. Earlier this week, he expanded its role to include oversight of spending and personnel cuts at federal agencies. Musk, meanwhile, was hired as a “special government employee,” an official designation for workers who aren’t expected to work more than 130 days per year in the administration.

 

The new lawsuits argue that Musk is operating as a “principal officer,” which is a role that has to be filled “with the advice and consent of the Senate” under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. 

 

The case brought by 14 Democratic state attorneys general in Washington accuses DOGE of exercising powers that Congress hasn’t authorized. They invoke a legal principle known as the major-questions doctrine that the US Supreme Court’s conservative majority used to curb federal power when Joe Biden was president. 

 

The states pointed to the court’s use of that doctrine in 2022, when it tossed out a Biden administration rule that would have required 80 million workers to get Covid-19 shots or periodic tests. The majority of the justices said in that ruling that courts “expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.”

 

The other case was filed in Maryland on behalf of a group of current and former unnamed federal employees and contractors with the US Agency for International Development who say they’ve been directly affected by DOGE’s efforts to gain access to agency records and the administration’s suspension of the USAID’s operations. 

 

The cases are New Mexico v. Musk, 25-cv-429, US District Court, District of Columbia, and Doe v. Musk, 25-cv-462, US District Court, Maryland (Greenbelt).