Judges have blocked some of Trump and Musk’s early moves—for now.
Topline
Three nonprofits sued President Donald Trump and a number of his Cabinet members and federal departments Wednesday, alleging the executive orders Trump signed regarding gender ideology and diversity and equity programs violate the Constitution and the the Administrative Procedure Act—the latest in a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk in court.TimelineHow Have Courts Ruled On Transgender Rights?
Trump’s executive order that directs transgender women to be incarcerated in male prisons has been blocked in court while litigation from a transgender inmate moves forward. The ruling came after a separate judge previously blocked one incarcerated transgender woman from being moved to a male prison after she sued over the policy change. Lawsuits are still pending challenging Trump’s directives banning transgender Americans from serving in the military and no longer allowing Americans to change the sex designation on their passport or use the non-binary “X.” Transgender public high school students in New Hampshire also filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging Trump’s ban on transgender women in women’s sports.How Have Courts Ruled On Doge?
Courts granted plaintiffs’ efforts to block Musk and his DOGE team from accessing records at the Treasury Department—at least temporarily. Still, DOGE staffers have been able to access other agencies. Musk and his DOGE associates can keep accessing information at the Department of Labor, as District Judge Bates declined to pause their access in response to a lawsuit from labor unions, saying the plaintiffs hadn’t established standing to sue, even as the judge expressed concerns. Prior to Engelmayer’s ruling cutting off DOGE’s access to Treasury systems, D.C.-based Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also said only two Musk-affiliated staffers can access the Treasury Department’s payment system on a “read only” basis, after workers’ unions sued the Treasury amid reports Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency accessed sensitive records. (One of the employees given access reportedly resigned over racist tweets, but was then reinstated.) Multiple lawsuits are still pending arguing Trump should not have been able to create Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” in the first place by renaming the already-existing U.S. Digital Service. As Musk and DOGE gain access to information at the Department of Education, a group of labor unions sued to block DOGE from accessing their private information from the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management, arguing this “violates federal law.” DOGE’s actions “threatens to upend how these critical systems are maintained and compromises the safety and security of personal identifying information for Americans all across the country,” the unions argued in a filing. The National Treasury Employees Union also challenged DOGE being able to access Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees’ private information.How Have Courts Ruled On Immigration?
In addition to courts blocking Trump’s order on birthright citizenship, a judge also temporarily blocked the Trump administration from transporting three men from Venezuela to Guantanamo Bay. Those men already had litigation pending over their detention, and the order does not affect the Trump administration’s broader actions to detain undocumented immigrants at the naval base, though the ACLU separately sued the Trump administration Wednesday over the government allegedly denying immigrants at Guantanamo access to lawyers.
