Such a realization is at the heart of this decision discussed here, from a case that has been discussed before, Does 1-26 v. Musk, where an initial win of an injunction against Musk and DOGE’s ruination of the USAID agency was soon evaporated by the Fourth Circuit. The big reason why the Fourth Circuit overturned the injunction was due to an issue that has kept coming up in these challenges: ratification. Because while it’s bad enough for Musk and DOGE to tear through the government, despite no lawful authority to do anything, there is a separate problem when those with lawful authority follow along after them to do the same things. Even in this case, one of the several challenging the illicit destruction of USAID as a functioning agency despite all statutory language prohibiting anyone but Congress from doing anything to interfere with its function, we’ve seen the effects of this sort of ratification, as Musk and DOGE’s super-duper illegal RIF notices to staff were later reissued only super illegally by non-DOGE officials with actual authority when it comes to running the agency. Because even these officials’ authority is still limited; they cannot do something that the law does not allow (in this case: winding down the agency that they are supposed to run). So following the loss at the Fourth Circuit the plaintiffs amended their lawsuit to name the non-DOGE officials too in order to give the court jurisdiction over their participation in the overall wrongdoing.
[T]here have had to be multiple cases, especially with respect to the illegal destruction of USAID, which suffered especially from being the agency Musk and DOGE “put through the woodchipper” first, as he unlawfully and unconstitutionally canceled contracts, laid off staff, and took away agency assets. Which meant that all the legal challenges to stop Musk and DOGE with respect to USAID also happened first, hitting the courts as matters of first impression before they had a chance to get their jurisprudential arms around the full extent of executive power abuse they were dealing with here, and before litigants figured out how to bring their challenges most effectively.
Because if everyone had to do it over again, knowing what we know now, presumably USAID would not now be standing on the precipice of being all but lost as an agency come September 2, when the last wave of RIFs kicks in to layoff the last of its now skeleton workforce from this once robust and valuable agency Congress established, and never closed.