New lawsuit argues Trump and DOGE's government overhaul is unconstitutional

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/29/nx-s1-5380783/trump-doge-lawsuit-federal-workers-cities

A coalition of labor unions, nonprofits and local governments including Chicago, Baltimore and Harris County, Texas, has mounted the broadest legal challenge yet to President Trump's massive overhaul of the federal government.

In a lawsuit filed late Monday, the plaintiffs charge that actions taken by the president, Elon Musk and the heads of nearly two dozen federal agencies to dramatically downsize the federal workforce violate the Constitution because Congress has not authorized them.

"Three months into this Administration, there can be no real doubt that impacted federal agencies are acting according to the direction being given by President Trump through DOGE, OMB, and OPM," the lawsuit states, referring to the government efficiency team that Musk oversees, as well as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

"Over and over, newly appointed agency heads have explained that they are reorganizing, eliminating programs, and cutting thousands upon thousands of jobs, because the President directed them to and because DOGE told them how much and what to cut."

The plaintiffs include some of the same unions and nonprofits that sued the Trump administration over its mass firing of probationary employees in the same federal court in San Francisco. In that case, U.S. District Judge William Alsup found that OPM illegally directed six federal agencies to terminate recent hires and those newly promoted into new positions. Alsup ordered more than 16,000 fired workers reinstated. The Supreme Court later vacated the reinstatement order but has not yet considered whether the firings were illegal.

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