Judge Says She Won't Block Musk, DOGE Immediately

A federal judge refused Tuesday to immediately block Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that there are legitimate questions about Musk's authority, but said there isn't evidence of the kind of grave legal harm that would justify a temporary restraining order, the AP reports.

• The decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic-led states challenging DOGE's authority to access sensitive government data. The attorneys general argued that Musk is wielding the kind of power that the Constitution says can only be held by those who are elected or confirmed by the Senate.

• DOGE has tapped into computer systems across multiple agencies with the blessing of President Trump, digging into budgets and searching for what he calls waste, fraud, and abuse, even as a growing number of lawsuits allege DOGE is violating the law.
• Chutkan, an Obama appointee, recognized the concerns of the group of states, which include New Mexico and Arizona. "DOGE's unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion," she wrote. Their questions about Musk's apparent "unchecked authority" and lack of Congressional oversight for DOGE are legitimate and they may be able to successfully argue them later.

• But, Chutkan wrote, the states have not shown "they will suffer imminent, irreparable harm absent a temporary restraining order." "It remains 'uncertain' when and how the catalog of state programs that Plaintiffs identify will suffer," she wrote, per CNN. She said judges can only issue court orders to block specific, immediate harms.
• The Trump administration, for its part, has maintained that layoffs are coming from agency heads, and asserted that despite his public cheering of the effort, Musk isn't directly running DOGE's day-to-day operations himself .

(More DOGE stories.)