Legal problems are getting in the way of Trump’s big plans.
A number of Trump’s orders have been briefly stopped from going into effect by federal judges.
Some of President Trump’s plans to quickly cut back and change the federal government are being slowed down by the courts.
In the first few weeks of his presidency, Trump has signed more than 50 executive orders that aim to change the way the government works. Trump’s numerous orders, including those targeting birthright citizenship and altering transgender prison conditions, have led to over twenty lawsuits filed against him. Some of these actions have been temporarily stopped by courts. On Thursday, at least three of these rulings were released. Two unions have brought a lawsuit against Trump’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, and two Trump orders have been put on hold, including a directive to prevent Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal information and the federal government’s payment system.
They are asking for an order that DOEGE can’t access the data and that any data that has already been taken must be returned. They say that the move broke federal privacy laws. The Justice Department has decided to limit some users’ access to the systems until Feb. 24, when a full hearing on the matter will be held.
Meanwhile, this week, a group of union members sued to stop DOGE, the company that Trump started, from getting to private Labor Department data.
Another problem is on the way: on Thursday, a group of 12 states said they were going to sue over DOGE’s access to the Treasury system.
Government buyouts
As part of Trump’s plan to cut back on the government workforce, the Office of Personnel Management just announced a program called “deferred resignation” that lets workers quit now and still get paid until September. The offer had to be accepted by Thursday night, and earlier that day, a top administration official said that 60,000 people had done so.
Federal workers’ unions sued to stop the program, saying that the Trump administration did not have the legal right to offer buyouts like this.
On Thursday, a federal judge in Boston said that the government couldn’t carry out the buyouts until at least Monday, when he will hold a hearing on the matter.
One effect of the judge’s order is that it gives workers more time to reply to the offer to quit.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told NBC News in a statement, “We are grateful to the Judge for extending the deadline so that more federal workers who refuse to show up to work can take the Administration up on this very generous, once-in-a-lifetime offer.”
Birthright citizenship
The executive order called “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” was one of Trump’s most controversial ones. It wants to limit birthright citizenship. It wants to limit citizenship to people who have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. It also says that people born to parents who are legally in the country but only for a short time will not be automatically given citizenship. This includes people with high-skill work visas and student visas.
The order is being fought in a number of cases across the country. This week, federal judges in Maryland and Washington state gave nationwide preliminary injunctions that stopped it from going into effect.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour wrote in his decision on Thursday, “Citizenship by birth is an unequivocal constitutional right.”
As the judge in Seattle wrote, “This Constitutional right cannot be changed, limited, or qualified by an executive order.”
The Justice Department filed an appeal Thursday night against the Seattle ruling.
Funding freeze
Two federal judges stopped for now a Trump administration order to freeze federal aid funds in response to his executive orders.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo telling all federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders.” These orders may have something to do with things like foreign aid and programs that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The memo said that the break would give the administration time to figure out which projects are “in line” with Trump’s plans.
The vaguely worded memo was taken back because it caused confusion about what kinds of aid would be stopped, and people and groups said they couldn’t get into systems to get government aid.
On Friday, after the memo was taken down, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell in Rhode Island signed off on a temporary restraining order. He said this while pointing out that Leavitt had tweeted, “This is NOT a rescinding of the federal funding freeze.” It’s just a rejection of the OMB report.
The judge thought what the White House did looked like it was against the law. The author wrote, “Federal law says that the Executive should ask Congress before acting if it thinks that appropriations are not in line with the President’s priorities.”
Transgender inmates
In another order, Trump told the federal Bureau of Prisons that they had to make sure that “males are not detained in women’s prisons.” This order was aimed at transgender prisoners.
That led to two cases being brought on behalf of four transgender women prisoners who were set to be moved to facilities for men. They said that the order was unfair because they would be in a facility for guys and would be very likely to be abused or hurt physically.
Two judges stopped the prisoners from being moved.