Appeals court says DOGE can operate USAID

Donald Trump is finally seeing some relief in the courts among the challenges to the moves made by his administration.

On Friday, an appeals court ruled that DOGE can continue to operate USAID.

The USAID Shutdown

Not long after Trump took office, USAID was targeted by DOGE due to programs most conservatives would consider waste, if not outright fraud.

The Democrats and media immediately started to attack the administration, claiming that much-needed programs were being unnecessarily terminated.

What was odd, however, was that nobody on the left seemed to mind a bit about the agency appearing to be funneling money to organizations tied to terror groups as well as being run by former presidential administration officials.

Judge Rules Dismantling of DOGE Unconstitutional

When DOGE took over USAID, locking out current staffers, the order was immediately challenged, and unfortunately for Trump, the case fell before yet another liberal judge.

Barack Obama appointed Chuang, so the fact of this case was decided long before a single piece of evidence had been presented or a single argument heard.

The main issue at hand is how much authority DOGE had over the agency, and whether the agency could be stripped down to its bare bones without an act of Congress.

Chuang’s ruling found that the order by Trump had robbed Congress of its “constitutional authority to decide whether, when and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”

Appeals Court Sides with DOGE

On Friday, a federal appellate court ruled that DOGE did have the authority to operate USAID, at least for the time being. The court granted the stay to the Trump administration that will allow DOGE to remain in control. The order also blocked biopharmaceutical executive Jeremy Levin from leading the agency.

The challenge was filed by more than two dozen current and former USAID staffers, who claimed that the DOGE takeover had violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.

When DOGE went in to take over USAID, the actions at USAID were technically under Secretary or State Marco Rubio, who had also been named as the acting administration of USAID when DOGE targeted the agency for shutdown.

All of these cases are going to drag out, and most of the executive order challenges as destined to go before the Supreme Court, but I would think, knowing this court, the Court will accept none of the cases until lower case challenges had been exhausted.