By Manzanita Miller
President Donald Trump is facing legal backlash from ideological federal judges and activists, but a handful of judges came to the President’s aid this week, allowing Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team to continue auditing the federal government.
While this is an evolving playing field – lawsuits are being argued daily – as of this writing five federal judges have beat back legal challenges against DOGE’s audit of the federal government.
The lawsuits against Trump range from attempts to delegitimize DOGE and its review of the federal budget, to lawsuits blocking Trump’s executive orders on birthright citizenship, federal spending, and transgender children.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who was appointed by Biden in 2021, listened to an argument from labor unions asking her to grant a temporary restraining order against DOGE to stop the organization from accessing federal data.
Boardman declined to issue a decision and showed skepticism over the union’s argument, giving conservatives hope that DOGE will be able to continue its work on behalf of taxpayers.
A big win came Tuesday, when Obama-appointee Judge Tanya Chutkan, rejected a Democrat-led legal attack from fourteen states which attempted to deny the DOGE team access to data on the firing of federal employees, allowing DOGE to continue identifying waste and abuse.
Chutkin, who was appointed by Obama in 2013, rejected the lawsuit brought by Democratic attorneys general and stated their argument lacked evidence to support the claim that “immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage”, would result from DOGE’s analysis.
One day earlier, Obama-appointee U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled against the University of California Student Association (UCSA), allowing Musk and DOGE to access data on student borrowers from the Department of Education.
Moss, who was appointed by Obama in 2014, stated that UCSA did not show sufficient evidence that allowing DOGE to review the data would cause sufficient irreparable harm. Moss also noted in his ruling that DOGE was to use the data for lawful purposes and maintain privacy standards.
At the end of last week, a Bush-appointee, U.S. District Judge John Bates, refused to issue a restraining order blocking DOGE from accessing data at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services.
And on February 13th, U.S. District Judge George O’Toole rejected an attempt from labor unions to block the Trump Administration’s deferred resignation program for federal employees.
O’Toole, appointed in 1995 by Bill Clinton, stated that the unions lack standing to challenge the initiative, because it does not directly impact them.
This series of legal victories for DOGE is heartening for the Trump Administration, but more importantly for the American people, as DOGE is unearthing billions of dollars of taxpayer money being funneled into absurd projects.
While there will likely be continued attempts from the left to stop DOGE, these victories show that Trump and his legal team are a force to be reckoned with.
Still, activists, unions, and judges are attempting to block Trump’s executive orders on ending birthright citizenship and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an emergency bid from the Trump team to reverse a federal court’s order to pause Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
The same day, activists at The National Urban League, National Fair Housing Alliance and AIDS Foundation of Chicago filed a suit against Trump and multiple federal departments and agencies over three anti-DEI executive orders.
And finally on Thursday, news broke group that a group of Venezuelan migrants in San Francisco are suing the Trump Administration in federal court over ending “deportation protections” for Venezuelans who entered the United States illegally.
But for now, DOGE remains intact and is able to do its work as it is upheld in court—giving President Trump the window of time he needs to complete these audits of federal spending.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
