Judge declines to immediately block Elon Musk or DOGE from federal data or layoffs

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge declined Tuesday to immediately block billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs.

U.S. 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 decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 states challenging DOGE's authority to access sensitive government data. The attorneys general argued that actions taken by Musk at the helm of DOGE can only be taken by a nominated and Senate-confirmed official under the Constitution.

The Trump administration has maintained that Musk doesn't have authority of his own and layoffs are coming from agency heads.

Musk's team has tapped into computer systems across multiple agencies with the blessing of President Donald 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.

Who runs DOGE?

As its influence within the federal government grows daily, one question routinely emerges about the Department of Government Efficiency: Who is in charge?

That answer continues to evade the lawyers tasked with defending Trump's administration in court.

In an affidavit filed in federal court on Tuesday, a White House official clarified that Elon Musk is not the administrator of the newly formed entity -- seemingly contradicting public statements by Trump. Since announcing DOGE in December 2024, he has routinely referred to Musk as its leader.

However, according to Office of Administration Director Joshua Fischer, Musk is a "non career special government employee" who serves as a senior adviser to the president. The filing compared Musk's role to that of Anita Dunn, a longtime political advisor who served as a senior adviser to President Joe Biden.

The filing did not provide any information about who oversees DOGE, other than ruling out Musk.

Judge Chutkan - who held a hearing Monday in a case that challenges the breadth of Musk's authority - raised concerns about the "unpredictable and scattershot" methods employed by DOGE.

"DOGE appears to be moving in no sort of predictable and orderly fashion," Chutkan said. "This is essentially a private citizen directing an organization that's not a federal agency to have access to the entire workings of the federal government, fire, hire, slash, contract, terminate programs, all without apparently any congressional oversight."

Federal judges are similarly wrestling with how to define DOGE within government. In an order issued late Friday, a federal judge in Washington, DC ruled that DOGE should be considered an "agency" though he noted how the Trump administration is "curiously" avoiding that label.

"This appears to come from a desire to escape the obligations that accompany agencyhood - such as being subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedures Act -- while reaping only its benefits," U.S. District Judge John Bates wrote.