Topline
Late on Friday, more than a few Democratic states filed lawsuits against President Donald Trump for allowing Elon Musk’s team to access sensitive state payment systems. This is the most recent in a string of legal battles between Democrats and other parties as they battle President Donald Trump and cost-cutting czar Musk in court.
Timeline
A team of 19 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Trump in federal court after employees from Musk’s Department of Government Performance were granted access to the Treasury’s payment system, alleging that the action violated the government’s rules and may cause Depends to illegally block spending that has already been blocked by Congress ( a court order in a separate lawsuit states just two DOGE staff may include read-only access ).
The lawsuit claims that DOGE’s access to the Treasury systems “puts a lot of money in the hands of the States and their residents in danger and endangers the ( personal information ) of the States ‘ residents whose information is stored on the payment systems.”
A team of states who sued Trump over a massive national grant freeze claimed in a filing that they” continued to be denied access to federal funds” despite a judge halting the freeze, claiming “scattershot outages” had prevented them from accessing some Biden-era grant programs.
Judge Carl Nichols—, a Trump appointee, blocked a plan to put 2, 200 U. S. Agency for International Development team on paid leave as of Friday, piece of Trump’s strategy to wind down the international aid agency, several reported—a temporary reprieve following a by a federal employees ‘ union calling Trump’s efforts to destroy USAID without Congress ‘ permission “unconstitutional and illegal”.
Before a judge decides on two lawsuits filed by FBI agents, the Justice Department to not name the FBI agents involved in the January 6 investigation because they believed the release of their names could threaten their employment, reputation, and well-being.
The University of California Student Association the Department of Education, alleging that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had unauthorized access to” sensitive personal and financial information” for about 42 million federal student loan borrowers.
As he weighs whether to grant a by federal workers ‘ unions who sued to block the buyouts, Judge GeorgeO’Toole, a Boston-based judge, halted a Thursday deadline for over 2 million federal employees to accept a as he considers whether to extend the deadline to Monday.
Judge John Coughenour in Seattle his on Trump’s day-one executive order rescinding for the children of undocumented or temporary immigrants, in response to a lawsuit brought by Democratic-led states, writing,” The president cannot change, limit, or qualify this Constitutional right via an executive order”.
D. After workers ‘ unions sued the Treasury Department over claims that Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency allegedly accessed sensitive records, C. based Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly only two Musk-affiliated staffers can access the Treasury Department’s payment system on a “read only” basis. ( One of the employees given access reportedly has since due to racist tweets. )
A —Deborah L. Boardman of Maryland— Trump’s policy rescinding birthright citizenship, in response to a lawsuit brought by nonprofits representing undocumented pregnant women.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth in D. C. Trump’s restrictions on transgender women being incarcerated in women’s prisons and federal prisons providing gender-affirming medical treatment, after multiple inmates sued to block the policy.
While litigation brought by nonprofit organizations that receive government funding progresses, District Judge Loren L. Alikhan largely the Trump administration’s memo, which ended nearly all federal assistance, even after the White House claimed it had been canceled.
The Trump administration’s memo pausing most federal assistance was partially blocked, as Judge John J. McConnell Jr. the Trump administration cannot withhold funding from the Democratic-led states that sued to block the funding freeze.
After Trump stripped transgender Americans of their legal protections, including being incarcerated in facilities that were compatible with their gender identities, law enforcement was unable to transfer an incarcerated transgender woman to a male prison facility under O’Toole, at least while the inmate’s legal case is progressing.
Coughenour Trump’s order rescinding , the first major ruling against the second Trump administration.
The first lawsuit against Trump’s administration was minutes after he took the oath of office, according to National Security Counselors, a group for public interest law.
Who Else Is Suing Trump?
In cases that haven’t yet yielded any rulings, such as pending cases involving Trump’s immigration policies like sanctuary city raids, immigration officers entering homes of worship, and restricting grants to immigration-related groups, lawsuits have been a number of other Trump administration directives. Multiple other transgender rights-focused cases are pending, including litigation Trump’s transgender military ban and minors receiving gender-affirming care, as well as a lawsuit challenging Trump’s broader restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Other legal action is still pending, including claims the Justice Department for prosecuting agents who worked on Jan. 6-related cases, Trump’s” Schedule F” executive order allowing him to fire career civil servants, his firing of Gwynne A. Wilcox, the Office of Personnel Management’s alleged retention of emails on an unsecure server, and the government for removing health information from federal websites.
Who Is Suing Over Doge and Elon Musk?
Additionally, a number of lawsuits accuse Trump of being unable to create Musk’s” Department of Government Efficiency” by changing the name of the U.S. Digital Service, and another challenge targets DOGE for accessing records held by the Department of Labor.
Will Trump have a Supreme Court case?
The Supreme Court has yet to hear any lawsuits brought against the second Trump administration, though at least some will unavoidably. It is all but certain that the high court will eventually weigh in on some of the legal challenges that are currently making their way through the courts because of the high stakes of the lawsuits brought against Trump policies and the fact that bringing multiple lawsuits against a single policy may result in conflicting rulings. It’s unclear how the 6-3 conservative court, stacked with three Trump appointees, will ultimately rule on any challenges, though legal experts have suggested some of the administration’s moves may be too much for even the conservative-leaning court to get behind. Georgetown Law School professor Stephen Vladeck he was skeptical the Supreme Court would back the administration’s memo halting federal funding, for instance. He noted that while the court was willing to give Trump more authority in its recent decision, it would be “quite another” thing for them to grant him” the right to refuse to spend any and all money Congress appropriates.” Legal experts have also been very skeptical of the legal justification the Trump administration has used to support the order revoked , which claims that the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to” all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” has always exempted the children of undocumented immigrants or noncitizens. Mark Krikorian, who runs the Center for Immigration Studies and supports ending , to NBC News in July Trump’s argument is” something that the Supreme Court may well decide against”, and legal experts have previously decried the legal theory behind Trump’s order as a “lunatic fringe argument”, with University of Massachusetts, Amherst, professor Rebecca Hamlin telling in 2018 that any lawyer who believes it is “like a unicorn”.
What Conflicting Positions of Trump and Elon Musk Still Haven’t Found A Way to File a Lawsuit?
Trump has already taken a number of significant executive orders, many of which have not yet been challenged in court. These include pulling out of the World Health Organization, halting federal funding for schools that allow transgender women to play in women’s sports, removing safeguards for artificial intelligence, and rescinding Biden-era climate change initiatives, including ordering federal agencies to not disburse some funding that was approved by Congress. Additionally, Musk and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” target=”_self” class=”color-link” title=”https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” data-ga-track=”InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” aria-label=”DOGE”>DOGE have taken a number of contentious steps that haven’t yet been settled in court, including <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” target=”_self” class=”color-link” title=”https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” data-ga-track=”InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2025/02/06/elon-musks-doge–accesses-federal-workforces-personal-data-heres-what-to-know-about-doge/” aria-label=”DOGE”>DOGE staffers allegedly using artificial intelligence to search through the Department of Education’s highly sensitive internal data.
Key Background
Trump has issued a slew of executive orders in the less than three weeks he’s been in the White House, issuing broad orders on issues such as climate change, transgender rights, DEI initiatives, education, immigration, the U. S. military, abortion, the federal death penalty and more. Musky, who Trump appointed to be DOGE’s chief adviser and has since become one of his top advisers, has also drawn a lot of controversy as he has sworn in as a result of his efforts to repress the government while proposing frequent spending cuts. Republicans now have the upper hand in allowing them to impose any kind of restriction on the Trump administration’s actions, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has cited litigation as a key component of Democrats ‘ response to the second Trump presidency. When asked how Democrats would oppose Trump’s policies, Jeffries said the litigation strategy” will continue as we move forward, we’ve seen a flood and an avalanche of outrageous executive actions that have been taken by the administration and by the current president.”