The mass firings of thousands of federal workers by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — with the blessing of President Donald Trump — have been ruled illegal, and Trump just lost an appeal to reverse that previous order.
In a Bluesky post, Politico legal correspondent Kyle Cheney linked to the 45-page ruling by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel (which encompasses Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state) which ruled 2-1 against Trump. The panel’s ruling denied the Trump administration’s request for an emergency stay of a previous order handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston earlier this month that ruled the mass firings were unconstitutional.
In the 9th Circuit panel’s ruling, Senior Judge William A. Fletcher (who was appointed by President Bill Clinton) agreed that the initial executive order that authorized the mass “restructuring” of federal agencies violated the separation of powers and illegally bypassed Congress’ authority over how federal agencies are staffed. Fletcher notably wrote that Musk’s quasi-agency has no legitimate power.
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“As Defendants concede, OMB [Office of Management and Budget] and OPM [Office of Personnel Management] have only supervisory authority over the other federal agencies,” Fletcher wrote. “DOGE has no statutory authority whatsoever. We therefore agree with the district court that these organizations’ actions directing other federal agencies to engage in restructuring and large-scale RIFs were [illegally carried out beyond legal powers].”
Fletcher wrote that describing all of the illegal actions the Trump administration and DOGE was impossible “without unduly lengthening this order,” but listed multiple examples of drastic mass firings that were under the umbrella of the District Court order the 9th Circuit panel was upholding.
“At the Department of Energy, [DOGE] has proposed cuts of up to 50% to the agency’s workforce, including cuts of 54% to science and innovation programs and 61% to energy infrastructure and deployment,” he wrote. “AmeriCorps has given notices and placed on leave 85% of its staff … The General Services Administration has announced plans to terminate nearly half its staff. It has already made significant cuts, leaving no employees to maintain fire protection systems, manage indoor air quality, or supervise asbestos inspections in government buildings.”
Following the 9th Circuit panel’s ruling, the Trump administration can now either appeal to the full 9th Circuit in an en banc petition, or it can petition the Supreme Court to stay the District Court’s order while litigation plays out. The initial lawsuit was filed by a coalition of labor unions representing federal workers, and defendants included both Trump and Musk as well as multiple Cabinet secretaries, including OMB Director Russell Vought, Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and acting DOGE administrator Amy Gleason, among others.
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Click here to read the full ruling.
