By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has scheduled a rare holiday court hearing on Monday, in a case brought by Democratic state attorneys general seeking to protect major federal agencies from Elon Musk’s government cost-cutting team known as DOGE.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., on Sunday called the hearing for Monday, the Presidents Day holiday when federal courts are closed.
She did not say why she ordered the hearing, but on Friday she heard arguments by 13 Democratic state attorneys general for a temporary restraining order that would bar Musk’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, team from accessing information systems at several government agencies including the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, Commerce, and the Office of Personnel Management.
DOGE has swept through federal agencies since Republican Donald Trump became president last month and put Musk in charge of rooting out wasteful spending as part of Trump’s dramatic overhaul of government, which included thousands of job cuts on Friday.
The attorneys general also asked the judge to prevent Musk and DOGE team members from firing government employees or putting them on leave.
The attorneys general have requested the order to last for 14 days, giving them time to file legal briefs in pursuit of a more permanent order.
Chutkan did not issue a ruling at Friday’s hearing.
The states argue that Musk wields the kind of power that can only be exercised by an officer of the government who has been nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate under the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The states also allege DOGE has not been authorized by Congress.
Around 20 lawsuits have been filed in various federal courts challenging Musk’s authority, which have led to differing results in two initial rulings.
U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in New York extended a temporary block on DOGE on Friday that prevented Musk’s team from accessing Treasury systems responsible for trillions of dollars of payments. But also on Friday, U.S. District Judge John Bates in Washington declined a request by unions and nonprofits to temporarily block Musk’s team from accessing records at the departments of Labor, and Health and Human Services, as well as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Most of the judges handling DOGE cases have not yet issued rulings.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Leslie Adler)
