A federal judge sided with Doctors for America and ordered the Health and Human Services Department and two other health agencies to restore their websites to what they were before Jan. 30—the latest in a slew of legal actions as Democrats and others fight President Donald Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk in court.
Donald Trump speaks briefly with reporters after the National Prayer Service at the National ... [+]
District Judge John D. Bates ordered HHS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to restore their websites and datasets to what they were on Jan. 30—prior to data being removed—before the end of the day in response to a lawsuit from Doctors for America that alleged the Trump administration removed “a broad range of health-related data and other information used by health professionals and researchers from publicly accessible government websites.”
Twenty-seven Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Unitarian Universalists, followers of Reform Judaism and other plaintiffs said the new Trump policy is cutting down on attendance at church programs as migrants fear raids inside houses of worship, which impacts the groups' ability to minister to migrants.
A group of labor unions led by the American Federation of Teachers sued to block the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency from accessing their private information from the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the OPM, arguing this “violates federal law.”
In a filing made before the U.S. federal court in Maryland, the unions accuse DOGE of “steamrolling into sensitive government record systems” and say that this “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.”
Boston-based Judge George O’Toole said he’ll keep in place an order blocking Trump’s deadline for over 2 million federal employees to accept buyout offers, as the judge weighs whether to halt the buyouts long-term, as requested by federal workers’ unions that sued over the plan (the buyout deadline was initially set for Feb. 6, but O’Toole has now extended it twice).
Judge John McConnell Jr. ordered the Trump administration to “immediately restore frozen funding” to federal funds, including those linked to the National Institutes of Health, making the order after finding states suing Trump showed evidence his administration has “improperly” frozen federal funds and stopped the disbursement of appropriated federal funds.
Twenty-two states sued the National Institutes of Health, challenging its decision to place a 15% cap on indirect funding for research projects, calling the rate change “arbitrary and capricious”
District Judge Joseph LaPlante said during a hearing Monday he’s halting Trump’s order that only allows the children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents to become citizens at birth, multiple outlets report, in response to a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union—marking the third time a federal judge has blocked Trump’s order since it was issued Jan. 20.
The Treasury Department asked U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer to “immediately” dissolve his order barring political appointees from accessing the Treasury Department’s system, after Trump, Musk and their allies blasted the judge’s ruling and claimed it shouldn’t be possible for the judge to restrict DOGE’s access.
Musk and his DOGE associates can keep accessing information at the Department of Labor, as U.S. 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 about DOGE accessing the Labor Department’s systems.
Engelmayer ruled political appointees and “special government employees”—like members of Musk’s team—must be cut of from access from the Treasury’s systems until another New York-based judge can rule on the issue next week.
Engelmeyer’s ruling came after a group of 19 Democratic state attorneys general sued Trump over DOGE’s Treasury access, arguing the move put personal information at risk, exceeded Treasury’s legal authority and could lead to DOGE unconstitutionally blocking spending that’s already been approved by Congress (a court order in a separate lawsuit said only two DOGE staffers can have read-only access).
A group of states that sued Trump over last week’s sweeping federal grant freeze alleged in a filing they “continue to be denied access to federal funds” even though a judge put the freeze on hold, claiming “scattershot outages” have cut them off from accessing several Biden-era grant programs.
Judge Carl Nichols—, a Trump appointee, blocked a plan to put 2,200 U.S. Agency for International Development staff on paid leave as of Friday, part of Trump’s gambit to wind down the foreign aid agency, multiple news outlets reported—a temporary reprieve following a lawsuit by a federal employees’ union calling Trump’s efforts to dismantle USAID without Congress’ permission “unconstitutional and illegal.”
The Justice Department agreed to not name the FBI agents involved in the Jan. 6 investigation before a judge rules on two lawsuits from FBI agents that argued the dissemination of the agents’ names could threaten their employment, reputation and wellbeing.
The University of California Student Association sued the Department of Education accusing Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency of illegally accessing “sensitive personal and financial information” of about 42 million federal student loan borrowers.
Judge John Coughenour in Seattle extended his pause on Trump’s day-one executive order rescinding birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented or temporary immigrants, in response to a lawsuit brought by Democratic-led states, writing, “The president cannot change, limit, or qualify this Constitutional right via an executive order.”
D.C.-based Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly 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 has reportedly since resigned over racist tweets.)
A second judge —Deborah L. Boardman of Maryland—blocked Trump’s policy rescinding birthright citizenship, in response to a lawsuit brought by nonprofits representing undocumented pregnant women.
Judge Royce C. Lamberth in D.C. paused Trump’s restrictions on transgender women being incarcerated in women’s prisons and federal prisons providing gender-affirming medical treatment, after multiple inmates sued to block the policy.
Doctors for America sued the OPM, CDC, FDA and HHS over their removal of health-related data from government websites used by health professionals—including data on youth mental health, environmental health impacts and PrEP and HIV—alleging the removal of webpages and datasets “creates a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, deprives physicians of resources that guide clinical practice, and takes away key resources for communicating and engaging with patients.”
District Judge Loren L. Alikhan broadly blocked the Trump administration’s memo halting almost all federal assistance—even after the White House claimed it had been rescinded—while litigation brought by nonprofit groups that receive government funds moves forward.
The Trump administration’s memo pausing most federal assistance was partially blocked, as McConnell ruled the Trump administration cannot withhold funding from the Democratic-led states that sued to block the funding freeze.
A group of Quaker congregations filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for rescinding a policy that stopped ICE agents from making arrests or conducting raids in “sensitive locations” like churches, schools and hospitals without approval from supervisors.
O’Toole prohibited law enforcement from transferring an incarcerated transgender woman to a male prison facility—at least while litigation filed by the inmate moves forward—after Trump stripped transgender Americans of their legal protections, including being incarcerated at prisons aligned with their gender identities.
Coughenour paused Trump’s order rescinding birthright citizenship, the first major ruling against the second Trump administration.
The first lawsuit against Trump’s administration was filed minutes after he was sworn into office, as public interest law group National Security Counselors argued DOGE should be classified as a federal advisory board that has “fairly balanced” membership and follows public transparency rules.
Lawsuits have been filed against a number of other Trump administration directives in cases that haven’t resulted in any rulings yet, including pending cases on Trump’s immigration policies like asylum restrictions, raids on sanctuary cities, immigration officers entering houses of worship, and restricting grants to immigration-related groups. Multiple other transgender rights-focused cases are pending, including litigation against Trump’s transgender military ban and minors receiving gender-affirming care, as well as a lawsuit challenging Trump’s broader restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Other lawsuits that are still pending include litigation against the Justice Department targeting agents who worked on Jan. 6-related cases, Trump’s “Schedule F” that makes it easier to fire career civil servants, Trump’s firing of National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne A. Wilcox, the OPM allegedly storing emails on an unsecured server and the government removing health data from federal websites. New complaints were also filed Sunday night by the National Treasury Employees Union, both against the alleged dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Musk and DOGE being able to access CFPB employees’ private information.
Multiple lawsuits are also arguing Trump should not have been able to create Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” by renaming the U.S. Digital Service. As Musk and DOGE gain access to information at the Department of Education, college students at University of California schools with federal student loans have also filed a lawsuit, alleging sharing their personal financial information violates federal privacy law.
Legal experts raised alarm Sunday after Vice President JD Vance suggested judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive's legitimate power” and shared a post suggesting the court order blocking Musk from accessing Treasury data violated the separation of powers. There is so far no indication that the Trump administration has intentionally not complied with rulings against it, however. While the administration protested in a court filing that the ruling limiting access to Treasury data was “anti-constitutional,” it still emphasized the administration was following it, with officials writing, “To be clear, notwithstanding the Order’s defects, Defendants are in compliance with it.” Some federal grant recipients have complained they were still unable to access federal funds even after a court order barred the administration from freezing federal assistance, but the Trump administration has claimed that was unintentional.
None of the lawsuits against the second Trump administration have yet made it to the Supreme Court, though at least some inevitably will. The high stakes of the lawsuits brought against Trump policies, plus the fact that bringing multiple lawsuits against a single policy may result in conflicting rulings, makes it all but certain the high court will eventually weigh in on some of the legal challenges that are now making their way through the courts. It’s unclear how the 6-3 conservative court, stacked with three Trump appointees, will ultimately rule on any challenges, though legal experts have suggested some of the administration’s moves may be too much for even the conservative-leaning court to get behind. Georgetown Law School professor Stephen Vladeck wrote he was skeptical the Supreme Court would back the administration’s memo halting federal funding, for instance. He noted that while the court was willing to give Trump more power in its recent decision giving him some immunity from criminal charges, it would be “quite another” thing for them to give him “the right to refuse to spend any and all money Congress appropriates.” Legal experts have also been highly skeptical of the legal justification the Trump administration has used to justify the order nullifying birthright citizenship, which claims the 14th Amendment—which guarantees citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”—has always exempted the children of undocumented immigrants or noncitizens. Mark Krikorian, who runs the Center for Immigration Studies and supports ending birthright citizenship, acknowledged to NBC News in July Trump’s argument is “something that the Supreme Court may well decide against,” and legal experts have previously decried the legal theory behind Trump’s order as a “lunatic fringe argument,” with University of Massachusetts, Amherst, professor Rebecca Hamlin telling NPR in 2018 that any lawyer who believes it is “like a unicorn.”
Trump has already issued a number of major executive actions, and many have not yet been challenged in court, such as him pulling out of the World Health Organization, withholding federal funding from schools that allow transgender women in women’s sports, imposing tariffs on China, removing safeguards around artificial intelligence, and rescinding Biden-era climate change initiatives, including ordering federal agencies not to disburse some funding that was approved by Congress. Musk and DOGE have also undertaken a number of controversial moves that haven’t yet resulted in court action, including DOGE staffers accessing information for Medicare and Medicaid and reportedly using artificial intelligence to search through sensitive internal data for the Department of Education.
Trump has issued a slew of executive orders in the less than three weeks he’s been in the White House, issuing broad orders on issues such as climate change, transgender rights, DEI initiatives, education, immigration, the U.S. military, abortion, the federal death penalty and more. Musk, whom Trump appointed to lead DOGE and has become one of his top advisers, has also drawn widespread controversy as DOGE has burrowed into the federal government and gained access to government information while proposing widespread cuts to spending. With Republicans holding both the White House and control of Congress, the courts have become the primary way for Democrats to issue any sort of check on the Trump administration’s actions, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has pointed to litigation as a key pillar of Democrats’ response to the second Trump presidency. “We’ve seen a flood and an avalanche of outrageous executive actions that have been taken by the administration and by the current president, but that has also prompted a response of righteous litigation,” Jeffries told MSNBC when asked how Democrats would oppose Trump’s policies, saying the litigation strategy “will continue as we move forward.”