Topline
An appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship must remain paused, denying an appeal by the Trump administration, according to multiple reports—the latest in a string of court rulings involving Trump and cost-cutting czar Elon Musk’s sweeping changes across the federal government.
President Donald Trump waits to greet French President Emmanuel Macron as he arrives at the White … [+]
Key Facts
Plaintiffs including Democratic attorneys general, federal workers, labor unions, nonprofits and other groups have brought dozens of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s activities in the weeks since Trump’s inauguration, as Republicans’ control of the White House and Congress has made legal action Democrats’ primary way of challenging Trump’s policies.
All of the lawsuits are still playing out in court and none have yet resulted in any final rulings, but a number of temporary rulings have been issued that either block policies while litigation moves forward, or allow various orders to stay in place until there’s a more lasting ruling.
The litigation is still subject to change: Judges who have ruled in the Trump administration’s favor so far could still issue future rulings that block their policies, and vice versa, and rulings both for and against the government are likely to be appealed to higher courts.
Where Has Trump Won In Court?
- CIA Employees: CIA Director John Ratcliffe can fire employees who served in roles related to diversity, equity and inclusion, Judge Anthony Trenga ruled at a hearing Thursday according to multiple reports, after the employees sued to block their firing—with The New York Times reporting the judge said he thinks based on “basic fairness” the employees shouldn’t have been dismissed, but Ratcliffe has authority to fire them under the law.
- Foreign Aid: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily halted a ruling by lower court Judge Amir Ali that required the Trump administration to disburse foreign aid funding for already-completed work, hours before Ali’s midnight Wednesday deadline to release the funds. Roberts’ ruling—which puts Ali’s order on hold until the Supreme Court can review the issue—is temporary and doesn’t comment on the merits of the case, but it still marks the Supreme Court’s first ruling in Trump’s favor since he retook office last month, and bolsters Trump’s push to slash the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- USAID Staffers: Trump-appointed Judge Carl Nichols ruled Friday the Trump administration can place workers at USAID on leave, reversing a previous ruling he made against the government after the administration submitted a filing assuring workers on leave will continue to receive government protections.
- Associated Press: Judge Trevor McFadden let the Trump administration keep blocking Associated Press reporters from major White House events—at least for now—denying a request by the AP to restore its journalists’ access after the Trump administration punished the news service for directing journalists to still use the term “Gulf of Mexico,” after Trump ordered the body of water to be renamed the “Gulf of America.”
- Elon Musk’s Authority: Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Democratic attorneys general’s efforts to block Musk and DOGE from accessing federal data or make personnel decisions—as the states argue Musk is an “agent of chaos” who doesn’t have the authority to make widespread government decisions—though Chutkan expressed concern in her Feb. 18 ruling about Musk’s authority and suggested she could rule against him in the future.
- DOGE Access to Labor Data: Judge John Bates twice denied labor unions’ request to block DOGE from accessing Labor Department data, at least while the litigation moves forward, first ruling the plaintiffs didn’t have standing, and then ruling Feb. 14 the plaintiffs did not sufficiently show their claims are likely to succeed—even as Bates acknowledged his “serious concerns about the privacy concerns raised by this case.”
- Federal Worker Buyouts: Judge George O’Toole let a deadline expire for federal workers to take a buyout offer, ruling Feb. 12 the labor unions challenging the buyout plan didn’t have standing to bring the case, after previously extending the deadline several times.
- Federal Employee Emails: Judge Randolph Daniel Moss denied an effort by federal workers to bar the government from sending mass emails to employees using an allegedly unsecured email server, finding on Feb. 17 the plaintiffs were unlikely to show they had standing to bring the case.
Where Has Trump Lost In Court?
- Birthright Citizenship: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia denied the Trump administration’s appeal of a previous judgment from Maryland that blocked Trump’s executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship on Friday, saying in the ruling the government did not show it is “likely to prevail in its claim that the district court abused its discretion.” Prior to this, four federal district judges had blocked Trump’s order rescinding birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens or non-permanent residents, and a panel of judges at the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals also rejected his attempt to reverse one of the judgments.
- Probationary Worker Firings: Judge William Alsup ordered the Office of Personnel Management on Thursday to temporarily reverse a memo urging agencies like the the Department of Defense to fire scores of relatively new “probationary” workers. Alsup reportedly said in a hearing OPM’s moves—part of a wider gambit to slash the size of the federal workforce—were likely illegal, arguing the office “does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire and fire employees at another agency.” The Trump administration argues OPM didn’t order mass firings, and instead just asked agencies to review probationary staff.
- Other Firings: While multiple lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s mass layoffs are still pending, individual workers Cathy Harris, who serves on the Merit Systems Protection Board, and Hampton Dellinger, from the Office of Special Counsel, have both gotten court orders barring the Trump administration from removing them while their litigation proceeds—with Dellinger’s case becoming the first to make it to the Supreme Court, as justices ruled 7-2 Friday not to overrule a court order temporarily keeping Dellinger in his role.
- Refugee Admissions: Judge Jamal Whitehead blocked Trump’s executive order suspending refugee admissions following a hearing Tuesday, in response to a lawsuit brought by refugee aid groups, with the judge ruling Trump’s order amounted to an “effective nullification of congressional will,” given the refugee program was established by Congress.
- DOGE Access To Student Loan Data: A federal judge in Maryland blocked the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to data at the Office of Personnel Management and Department of Education Monday—including student loan data—while a lawsuit from the American Federation of Teachers and federal employees moves forward, even after a different district court denied a coalition of University of California students’ request to block DOGE’s access to student loan data.
- DOGE Access to Treasury Data: DOGE has been prohibited from accessing Treasury Department data while litigation moves forward, after Judge Jeanette Vargas blocked DOGE’s access to accessing Treasury data Friday in response to a lawsuit by Democratic attorneys general—coming after a different federal judge issued a more limited ruling granting read-only access to two specific DOGE staffers.
- Funding Freeze: Two federal judges blocked the Trump administration’s controversial directive to pause almost all federal grants, with Judge John McConnell doubling down on Feb. 10 and ordering the government to resume funding after organizations that brought the case claimed the Trump administration had not released funds as required.
- DEI: Responding to the Trump administration’s broad efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, federal judges have blocked the government’s efforts to withhold any “equity-related” federal grants and dismiss civil servants who hold DEI-related jobs at federal intelligence agencies, at least while the litigation proceeds.
- Transgender Rights: The Trump administration’s widescale restrictions on transgender rights have so far been partially blocked in court, with multiple judges issuing rulings blocking the Trump administration from incarcerating transgender women inmates in male prisons, and a federal judge temporarily blocking the government’s restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare for minors in a ruling on Feb. 16.
- National Institutes of Health Funding: On Feb. 10, Judge Angel Kelley blocked a change by the NIH to impose a blanket 15% reimbursement rate for some medical research costs—which have traditionally been negotiated on a case-by-case basis—after medical organizations and hospitals argued the change violated proper federal procedures.
- Health Websites: Bates ordered the Trump administration to restore health-related government websites that it had taken offline following Trump’s inauguration, in a ruling on Feb. 11, after Doctors for America argued the information being removed violated federal law and the loss of information harmed its membership.
What Lawsuits Are Still Pending?
Immigration: Litigation is still pending on the suspension of refugee admissions, asylum restrictions, raids on sanctuary cities, withholding funds from sanctuary cities, immigration officers entering houses of worship, restricting grants to immigration-related groups, the “expedited removal” of immigrants and the administration shutting down the CBP One app used by asylum seekers.
DOGE: Multiple lawsuits are still pending that challenge Trump’s authority in establishing DOGE altogether, and various groups are also seeking to block Musk and his associates’ access to data at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management, Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration. Left-leaning watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has also filed a lawsuit claiming DOGE has “provided no meaningful transparency into its operations,” which asks the court to force DOGE to comply with requests for federal documents and recover any lost or destroyed records.
Federal Workers: The Trump administration’s and DOGE’s widespread cuts to the federal workforce have resulted in a number of lawsuits, including cases challenging the mass layoffs and Trump firing inspectors general. Gwynne Wilcox, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board, has also challenged her firing in court, and multiple lawsuits challenge Trump’s “Schedule F” order that makes it easier to fire career civil servants. A lawsuit challenging the DOJ’s targeting of officials involved with the Jan. 6 investigations is still pending, but the court has ordered the government not to disseminate any list of names of FBI officials involved with those investigations while the litigation is pending. Labor unions who were already suing the Trump administration over the mass firings of federal employees also filed an amended complaint Monday to add in a challenge to Musk’s email to federal workers directing them to respond with what they did over the past week or else be fired, with the unions arguing the Office of Personnel Management’s request for workers to respond to the email or face termination does not follow proper government procedures.
Transgender Rights: Lawsuits are still pending challenging a number of the Trump administration’s restrictions on transgender Americans’ rights, including the ban on transgender athletes in women’s sports, the requirement that passports must reflect an individual’s biological sex and the reinstated ban on transgender Americans serving in the military.
Federal Funding: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration to reinstate lost funding, after the federal government’s funding freeze allegedly resulted in Pennsylvania losing funding even after courts ordered the funds to be sent out. New York City has also sued the Trump administration to claw back federal money, after the federal government allegedly canceled $80 million in already-disbursed FEMA funds to New York City.
Climate Change: Environmental groups sued the Trump administration over the president’s order saying parts of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf can be used for oil and gas leasing—reversing an action by former President Joe Biden—with the plaintiffs arguing Trump exceeded his authority in doing so. Environmental and farming organizations also brought a lawsuit Monday against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing they’ve been harmed by the government’s decision to delete information on climate change from government websites.
Congestion Pricing: New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority has asked a federal court to invalidate Trump’s order directing the city to cancel its congestion pricing, which charges vehicles a daily fee to drive in more crowded parts of Manhattan. The city argued that Trump cannot unilaterally cancel the program and it will not cease the program just because he said so, given that it’s a state program, but it still wants the court to declare Trump’s order “null and void.”
What Has The Trump Administration Said In Court?
The Trump administration has defended the administration’s policies in court even when they’ve broadly gone against the views of most legal experts, such as claiming the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship.The administration’s lawyers have particularly drawn scrutiny in the Democratic states’ lawsuit over Musk’s authority, which has led the government’s attorneys to downplay the billionaire’s influence, even as both Trump and Musk have credited the Tesla CEO with sweeping cuts. The Justice Department’s attorneys have also drawn scrutiny for being unable to tell judges the number of workers that have been fired, and who in the government was serving as DOGE’s administrator.
What Have Judges Said To Trump And His Lawyers?
Judges have often criticized the government’s policies or made plain they violate federal law, with Judge Lauren King arguing the executive order banning gender-affirming care for minors “promises serious harm to children” and is a “blunderbuss” in actually accomplishing the administration’s stated goal of protecting children. Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in his ruling blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship order that “The president cannot change, limit, or qualify this Constitutional right via an executive order.” Judges have also expressed concern even when they’ve ruled in the government’s favor, with Chutkan acknowledging in her ruling allowing DOGE’s activities to continue that Democratic-led states “legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual,” referring to Musk.
Has Trump Been Following The Court’s Orders?
So far, yes. While legal experts raised alarm after Vice President JD Vance suggested in February that judges “aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” there is so far no indication that the Trump administration has intentionally not complied with rulings against it, and the administration has taken pains in court filings to say it is following court orders.
Will More Cases Go To The Supreme Court?
Dellinger’s case and the USAID funding case are so far the only lawsuits since Trump’s inauguration that have made it to the Supreme Court, but given the high stakes of the policies now being challenged, more are likely to follow. It’s unclear how the 6-3 conservative court, which includes 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, giving Trump “the right to refuse to spend any and all money Congress appropriates.”
What Other Lawsuits Could Still Be Brought?
Many of Trump’s policies still haven’t resulted in litigation, but could in the future. Among the policies that haven’t yet been challenged in court are him pulling out of the World Health Organization, 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.
Further Reading
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