Federal judge won’t immediately block Elon Musk or his team from federal data or firing workers

A federal judge refused Tuesday to immediately block billionaire Elon Musk and his White House advisory team from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that there are legitimate questions about Musk’s authority but said there isn’t evidence of the kind of grave legal harm that would justify a temporary restraining order.

The decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic states challenging the authority of Musk’s team to access sensitive government data. The attorneys general argued that Musk is wielding the kind of power that the Constitution says can be held only by those elected or confirmed by the Senate.

The Trump administration has maintained that firings are coming from agency heads, and asserted that despite his public cheering of the effort Musk isn’t directly running his team’s day-to-day operations himself.

Musk’s team, which he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has tapped into computer systems across multiple agencies with the blessing of President Trump, digging into budgets and searching for what he calls waste, fraud and abuse, even as a growing number of lawsuits allege DOGE is violating the law.

Chutkan recognized the concerns of the group of states, which include California, New Mexico and Arizona.

“DOGE’s unpredictable actions have resulted in considerable uncertainty and confusion,” she wrote. Their questions about Musk’s apparent “unchecked authority” and lack of congressional oversight for DOGE are legitimate and they may be able to successfully argue them later.

Still, it remains unclear exactly how DOGE’s work will affect the states, and judges can issue orders only to block specific, immediate harms, she found.

Chutkan, who was nominated by President Obama, oversaw the felony election interference case against Trump, which was dismissed because he won the November election, and Justice Department policy prohibits charging a sitting president.

Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.