President Trump and his advisor Elon Musk speak before leaving the White House on March 14th on their way to their South Florida home in Mar Lago. Robert Schmidt/AFP via Getty Image
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Robert Schmidt/AFP by Getty Images
A coalition of unions, nonprofits and local governments, including Chicago, Baltimore and Harris County, Texas, faces the broadest legal challenges of President Trump's massive federal overhaul.
In a lawsuit filed late Monday, the plaintiffs allege that the lawsuit filed by President Elon Musk and the heads of around 20 federal agencies to dramatically reduce the federal workforce is unconstitutional because Congress has not approved them.
“Three months after this administration, the actions of federal agencies affecting President Trump in accordance with the directions given by DOGE, OMB and OPM refers to the government's efficiency teams overseen by MUSK, as well as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
“The newly appointed agency manager explains that they are restructuring, eliminating programs and cutting thousands of jobs to thousands of jobs.
The plaintiffs include the same unions and nonprofits that sued the Trump administration over mass shootings of probation employees in the same federal court in San Francisco. In that case, US District Judge William Alsap found that OPM illegally directed six federal agencies to end recent employment and new promotions into new positions. Alsup ordered that more than 16,000 fired workers have recovered. The Supreme Court later exempted the order from reinstatement, but has yet to consider whether shootings were illegal.
The new complaints go further, claiming that Trump's February 11 executive order “will implement the President's 'Government Efficiency Bureau' Labor Optimization Initiative” and that his administration has taken steps under the Constitution to “take Congress' powers.”
The argument is divided into history, saying that “since the establishment of the nation, federal courts recognize that federal agencies have not been created by the president,” but the plaintiffs argue that by Congress, which has the sole authority to take on the wholesale transformation ordered by Trump.
But Congress, led by Trump's Republican allies, has primarily chosen to remain silent as the administration fires federal workers, shuts down government programs and closes federal buildings.
Trump has touted these moves as restoring accountability. He repeatedly argued throughout the 2024 election that Americans gave him an obligation to eliminate the waste, fraud and inefficiency of the federal government.
Citing the irreparable harm, the plaintiff asked the court to do so, along with notes issued by the OMB and OPM to the institution and memos on how to implement the order. They also asked the court to “reduce enforcement” or to override the RIF plan, claiming that the compressed timeline — only for a few weeks — could not allow proper compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements set out to submit those plans for approval.
The lawsuit aims directly at Doge masks to set up representatives at government agencies and direct workforce reductions. Unlike OMB and OPM, Congress says it does not allow Doge any kind of statutory power. The plaintiff wrote:
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the NPR lawsuit.