Back to Work
Plus: Who's in charge of DOGE, protests over Israel's renewed assault on Gaza, and a tribute to the life of Manuel Klausner.
Back to work: A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration's unilateral dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) likely violated the U.S. Constitution.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang ordered the administration to return computer and email access to employees of the agency, including those who had been placed on administrative leave, reports the Associated Press.
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The ruling comes as part of the lawsuit filed by unnamed USAID employees who have challenged the constitutionality of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its apparent head Elon Musk's ability to fire employees, cancel grants, and shutter the congressionally authorized agency.
These employees and contractors had requested a preliminary injunction from the court that would reinstate USAID employees and funding.
Chuang partially granted that request, writing that DOGE's actions to shut down the USAID and close its headquarters without the approval of a USAID officer "likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways" and "deprived the public's duly elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress."
His order instructs the Trump administration to return USAID employees and contractors' access to all electronic systems within a week.
It also prohibits Musk, DOGE staffers, and anyone designated as part of a DOGE team within the federal government from taking further action to wind down the USAID, including terminating contracts, firing employees, or placing anyone on administrative leave.
Within two weeks, DOGE is also supposed to come up with a plan for allowing the USAID to return to its offices in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, D.C., which DOGE very publicly evicted it from.
Politico notes that there is some ambiguity in the order. Chuang's injunction applies only to Musk, his DOGE deputies, and anyone named as part of a DOGE team focused on the USAID. That would seemingly not bind other non-DOGE members of the Trump administration from taking actions to wind down USAID employees and programs.
Who's in charge? Beyond the immediate reinstatement of some USAID functions, Chuang's ruling is consequential by finding that Musk is in charge of DOGE and that his role in running the agency is constitutionally dubious.
To date, there's been a lot of ambiguity about what the billionaire's precise role within the federal government is. In other DOGE-related lawsuits, the Trump administration has claimed that Musk is serving merely as a White House adviser and has no formal role in the two DOGE units within the White House, nor with the DOGE teams that have been set up in various federal departments.
As Chuang notes in his ruling, President Donald Trump has very publicly undermined that stance by repeatedly referring to Musk, in interviews, cabinet meetings, and a joint address to Congress, as the head of DOGE with wide powers to fire employees and make cuts.
According to plaintiffs in the USAID lawsuit, this presents a problem for DOGE, as Musk is apparently acting as a principal officer without the needed Senate confirmation in violation of the Constitution's Appointments Clause.
Chuang's ruling is the first to support that argument. That could lend support to the many other anti-DOGE lawsuits accusing Musk of acting as a principal officer without congressional authorization.
A life for liberty: Earlier this week, Manuel Klausner, a co-founder of the Reason Foundation and early editor for Reason, died at the age of 85. Brian Doherty has written an obituary of Klausner, charting his life as a young lawyer and instructor at the University of Chicago Law School and his involvement in the very early days of Reason.
[Klausner's] enthusiasm for spreading libertarian ideas led to him connecting with a local libertarian philosopher he heard on the radio, Tibor Machan; the two men eventually allied with local engineer Robert Poole and took over Reason in 1971, which had been foundering under its founding editor Lanny Friedlander. Klausner played many roles with the magazine through the 1970s, including editor and publisher, and in 1978 was a co-founder of Reason Foundation, which took on the publishing of Reason, as well as other public policy work pushing libertarian ideas in the real world.
In a 1999 interview, Klausner told Doherty, "On my death bed I'll be proud and happy—I'm positive by nature. We have a free country here in that we can accumulate capital and invest in building frameworks to circulate ideas."
Read the whole obit here. Reason Foundation co-founder Robert Poole has also written a tribute to Klausner. RIP.
Scenes from D.C.: Last night, demonstrators gathered outside the White House to protest Israel's renewed assault on Gaza.
Protests outside the White House !
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— Winter's Politics ???? (@WintersPolitics) March 19, 2025
In what's being reported as one of the deadliest days of the war so far, Israel broke the ceasefire by launching air and naval strikes against the small territory on Tuesday. At least 400 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack.
QUICK HITS
- Reason reports yesterday on a Rhode Island town that's decided to forgo all the pesky process involved in the taking of private property and instead just sign the title over to itself.
- Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of violating a partial truce, reports The Wall Street Journal.
- Read Virginia Postrel on "lawn-sign liberalism vs. supply-side progressivism."
- Arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil issues a letter from the Louisiana detention center he's being held in by immigration officials. He calls himself a "political prisoner."
- Trump releases the last of the John F. Kennedy assassination files.
- Dems in disarray as Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) criticizes Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) for not blocking Republicans' government funding bill.
