Appeals court enables Musk to resume cuts at USAID

A federal appeals court on Friday enabled Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to resume efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

In a win for the Trump administration, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifted a lower ruling that found Musk was exercising enough independent authority to require Senate confirmation under the Constitution's Appointments Clause.

“While defendants’ role and actions related to USAID are not conventional, unconventional does not necessarily equal unconstitutional,” U.S. Circuit Judge Marvin Quattlebaum wrote. 

“And none of this is to say that plaintiffs will not be able to develop evidence of unconstitutional conduct as the case progresses. Time will tell,” he added. 

The Trump administration has quickly looked to eliminate USAID as Musk and the president claim the foreign aid agency is rife with fraud, terminating or placing on leave thousands of employees within weeks of the inauguration. This week, the administration formally began seeking to merge the agency with the State Department.  

Twenty-six current and former USAID employees are suing Musk, contesting the administration’s position that he has no actual independent authority and didn’t ratify the decisions to dismantle the agency. The administration asserts the billionaire is not a formal part of DOGE and is instead a senior adviser to the president within the White House. 

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang rejected that argument based on media reports and some of Musk’s own statements. Finding that some of the actions were not approved by USAID personnel, the judge indefinitely blocked Musk and DOGE personnel from shutting down the agency from the outside. Chaung is an appointee of former President Obama. 

The 4th Circuit panel unanimously agreed that Chuang’s ruling should be wiped as the administration’s appeal proceeds. But only two of the judges on Friday found that Musk was likely acting constitutionally. 

“As to Musk, the evidence before us creates a strong likelihood that he functioned as an advisor to the President, carrying out the President’s policies of shrinking government and reducing spending, not as an Officer who required constitutional appointment,” wrote Quattlebaum, a President Trump appointee, joined by U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush.

U.S. Circuit Judge Roger Gregory, however, said he only voted with his two colleagues because the USAID workers hadn’t sued the right defendants. If they had sued USAID and its leadership, the judge said he would’ve sided with them.

“We may never know how many lives will be lost or cut short by the Defendants’ decision to abruptly cancel billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated foreign aid,” Gregory wrote. “We may never know the lasting effect of Defendants’ actions on our national aspirations and goals. But those are not the questions before the Court today.” 

Gregory originally began as a judge via a recess appointment from former President Clinton. The judge was later renominated by former President George W. Bush.

The case is one of dozens of lawsuits that seek to stymie DOGE’s operations. A similar suit asserting that Musk must be confirmed by the Senate filed by Democratic state attorneys general remains pending.