Elon Musk and the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity are working unconstitutionally, and their actions have to be reversed. That’s the putting declare made in a lawsuit filed by 14 state attorneys common on Feb. 13 in federal courtroom.
The lawsuit runs 60 pages, detailing the chaos Musk and his DOGE minions have wreaked at federal businesses from the Treasury Division to the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID) to the Client Monetary Safety Bureau.
However its central claims are easy: that Musk is wielding “just about unchecked” energy from a put up that Congress didn’t create, and with out the Senate affirmation that’s required of any “principal officer” of the chief department. Such positions embrace members of the Cupboard — who now all seem like taking marching orders from Musk, who’s performing as President Donald Trump’s head of presidency.
Not solely is Musk working with out the recommendation and consent of the Senate, however he seems to be working unchecked by even Trump, who’s saved apprised of Musk’s actions solely “as wanted.” The lawsuit notes, sharply: “If there have been any doubt concerning the attain of Mr. Musk’s de facto energy over executive-branch operations, his remarks delivered from the Oval Workplace on February 11, 2025 — with the president sitting in silence on the Resolute as Mr. Musk held the ground — ought to dispel it.”
The lawsuit grounds itself within the Declaration of Independence, which decried the rule of the King and his unaccountable cronies. And it claims that Musk’s function in authorities is an unconstitutional violation of the Structure’s Appointments Clause. The aid it seeks can also be stark: a judicial declaration that Musk’s authorities function requires Senate affirmation, and that his — and DOGE’s — actions up to now haven’t been lawful, and have to be reversed.
The litigation alleges that “President Trump has delegated just about unchecked authority to Mr. Musk with out correct authorized authorization from Congress and with out significant supervision of his actions,” and that Musk has “reworked a minor place that was previously accountable for managing authorities web sites into a delegated agent of chaos with out limitation.” (Trump, through government order, created DOGE by renaming the U.S. Digital Service, created in 2014 following the tech lapses that marred the launch of the insurance coverage change HealthCare.gov.) The go well with asserts that Musk “has exceeded the lawful authority,” not solely of any Senate-confirmed put up, however “of the president himself.”
To higher perceive the constitutional and sensible implications of the litigation, Rolling Stone spoke Friday afternoon to one of many state lawyer generals who filed the go well with, Dana Nessel of Michigan, who has served in her put up since 2019. Nessel didn’t mince phrases, likening Musk to a “king” and decrying his lawlessness as, by turns, “terrifying” and “insane.”
The transcript that follows has been edited for size and readability.
Why root this go well with within the Declaration of Independence?
Our nation’s founders needed to differentiate our nation from the nation we have been succeeding from — so we didn’t have a king-like determine within the workplace of the presidency. And President Trump appears to have both not discovered, or forgotten, that lesson. It’s bewildering that he would suppose that he has the authority to grant this type of energy to any single particular person. A lot much less somebody like Elon Musk, who has not gone by means of any of the method {that a} Cupboard secretary must undergo.
The Appointments Clause calls on Cupboard secretaries to be nominated and — with the recommendation and consent of the Senate — appointed. So that there’s one other department of presidency evaluating whether or not this particular person is appropriate. Vetting the particular person — safety clearances and background checks and monetary disclosure studies — and checking to see whether or not they have a battle of curiosity.
The ability that Musk now has — one particular person who doesn’t simply have authority over an company of presidency, however who has that energy over all businesses of presidency — has by no means been seen earlier than, actually in my lifetime. And, I’d argue, seemingly the historical past of the nation.
The lawsuit alleges that the company now known as DOGE has assumed powers by no means granted by Congress.
Congress creates businesses and offers them with the authority. [The office now known as] DOGE has exceeded its statutory authority. It’s an administrative physique that resides inside the Workplace of Administration and Funds. It’s actually an “inferior office.”
Below the Structure, the heads of such places of work take their orders from somebody who is Senate-confirmed — somewhat than bossing these folks round.
We don’t have a place that will oversee each single company in the best way Musk is doing. One has by no means been created congressionally. You may’t simply say: Effectively, he’s a proxy for the president. Elon Musk was elected by nobody, and he was confirmed by nobody. To grant him this type of broad, sweeping authority over all parts of the federal authorities is just unparalleled — and, we argue, very unlawful and really unconstitutional.
He’s performing like a king in each single respect.
It’s insane that you would have one particular person that would actually entry any space of the federal authorities. After which not simply make suggestions like saying, ‘Hey, right here’s a contract that we predict is pointless.’ Or, ‘Right here’s the place we will trim a little bit fats from the funds.’ He’s wholesale firing staff. He’s canceling authorities contracts. He’s promoting authorities property. He’s eliminating grants. He says he’s eliminating complete congressionally-authorized departments of presidency — on his personal. We don’t even know that he’s had discussions with the president when he’s doing this stuff.
It does increase questions on whether or not the president or his prime donor is basically in cost.
I watched the spectacle within the Oval Workplace just a few days in the past. What the president appeared to recommend is that Musk will inform him issues on a need-to-know foundation. And if he has questions, I suppose he’ll ask. That doesn’t present nice confidence to the American public that our data is being correctly protected, or that the selections Musk is making profit the American folks.
We’ve lengthy had public debate on this nation about whether or not cuts to the federal authorities ought to happen with a “scalpel” or an “ax.” Musk is now bragging about sending complete businesses by means of the “woodchipper” over a weekend.
He’s burning the federal government down. He has no regard for the American folks. He doesn’t care about their well-being. He doesn’t care about their security and safety and their personal data.
In case you don’t thoughts me telling you a narrative: My father is 87. He obtained some type of an electronic mail [supposedly] from the Michigan Division of Treasury saying that his tax return wasn’t obtained. I suspected that it was a rip-off — simply attempting to get him to offer data. So I contacted the state treasurer, and I used to be like, ‘Are you able to simply inform for those who obtained my dad’s tax return or not?’ And he or she mentioned, ‘I can’t provide you with that data.’ As a result of that’s how severely they take defending folks’s privateness and their personal data.
Do you bear in mind how Donald Trump didn’t need anyone to find out about his tax return? He refused to offer it. He made such an enormous deal about it, despite the fact that he was working for the best workplace within the land.
And but now, Elon Musk and his members at DOGE, they’ve all of our tax returns. These folks weren’t vetted. We don’t know in the event that they’re even technically federal staff. They’re, I suppose, subcontractors? We don’t know who these individuals are. They’ve all of our data. They’ve our checking account data that’s related to our IRS filings and our Social Safety numbers. The people who find themselves on Medicaid or Medicare, they’ve the medical billing data, which might let you realize what situation is being handled, or what sort of procedures they’ve had, or what sort of treatment any person’s on.
And of all of the issues that scare the daylights out of me — it’s the state secrets and techniques [they have access to]. All the best way from the nuclear codes, to army plans and the place our troops are situated. We’ve this man who we all know meets with leaders all around the world, together with it appears with a few of our most vital adversaries, reminiscent of Vladimir Putin. And now he’s been into the Division of Protection, and God is aware of what data now he’s obtained that even our generals, the best classifications of presidency, don’t essentially have entry to.
That’s insane. The place are the Republicans who’re in cost within the Senate and within the Home? Why are Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins OK with Elon Musk having this a lot authority, and this a lot entry to probably the most delicate data that People and America has in its possession? It’s fairly frankly terrifying.
To be clear on the result that the lawsuit is searching for: This might simply basically wipe out every little thing that Musk and DOGE have accomplished up to now?
The discovering could be that the actions that he’s taken — which have been plentiful — are outdoors the boundaries of any authorized authority that he has. And so these actions should be clawed again.
To begin with, we have now to know what all these actions are. As a result of we don’t essentially even know the entire issues that he’s accomplished — whether or not it’s ordering the rescission of rules or all of the personnel choices which have been made. All probationary staff, who’ve labored for the federal government for lower than a 12 months, are being terminated. It’s not needed to put these folks off for monetary functions, except you’re simply attempting to offer huge tax breaks to folks like Elon Musk.
It’s going to be difficult to place the toothpaste again within the tube. I’ve interviewed people from USAID, who have been administering aid packages in Africa, they usually have been already despatched again to the states. Is it actually attainable to undo the harm that’s already been accomplished in the best way that your lawsuit suggests?
It may not be, however we have now to attempt. There was a big quantity of injury accomplished in a really brief time frame. However, if something, that tells us that it may well’t proceed. We hope the choose will grant our short-term restraining order and grant the aid that we’ve requested. We will’t erase the harm, however we will mitigate it.
Are you able to converse simply briefly to state standing? I may think about the Justice Division countering: What are these states attempting to do, telling the federal authorities the way to run itself? How does this challenge affect the 14 states which have joined this lawsuit?
We’ve, in Michigan, tens of millions of individuals file federal tax returns, tens of millions of people that obtain Social Safety or Medicaid or Medicare. It’s their personally figuring out data that’s now within the palms of DOGE. Will this go to our overseas adversaries for a worth? Will or not it’s straightforward to hack into no matter programs they’re maintaining it on? Will or not it’s accessed by a kind of darkish net hacking operations?
It hurts my state residents when you may have packages which are minimize off wholesale. We noticed [pauses to] Meals on Wheels and help to our veterans that reside in Michigan. And initiatives by means of the Infrastructure Act or by means of the inflation Discount Act that we’ve relied upon. We’ve people who find themselves dropping jobs in Michigan due to this.
Have a look at what simply occurred with the NIH. That order [slashing federal funding] got here down final Friday, and we had filed go well with and gotten a restraining order by Monday. However that alone was $266 million that will be misplaced to analysis establishments within the state of Michigan in a single day. The record simply goes on and on. It’s actually damaging — the chaos, the confusion, folks not figuring out from day-to-day whether or not they’ll obtain the programming they’re alleged to get.
I’ll let you know that we’ve gotten 1000’s and 1000’s of complaints about this. My constituents are deeply involved about this challenge, and I believe that that mirrors what many People are pondering.
You all filed this go well with Thursday, and as we have been getting on the telephone Friday, Tanya Chutkan, the choose in D.C. overseeing the case, has already scheduled a listening to.
I do suppose it means she understands the intense nature of this. And that, actually, with each hour it goes by, there’s irreparable hurt being accomplished to our nation.
What else ought to the American public know?
It’s a noble objective to need to make it possible for our authorities is working effectively and that we’re not losing cash. I don’t know a single one who disagrees with that premise. However that is completely not the best way to do it. They fired all of the inspectors common, whose job was to make it possible for we didn’t have waste within the authorities, or fraud within the authorities. They fired all of these folks.
That is clearly about one thing else. Right here you may have Elon Musk, President Trump’s greatest benefactor. His greatest donor. He’s not there to assist the American folks. He’s not there as a result of he’s a believer in good authorities. He’s there for his personal egocentric pursuits — and people of the president.
