Michigan AG Nessel leads multistate suit seeking injunction against Elon Musk, DOGE

Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News on Feb 13, 2025

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LANSING, Michigan — Attorney General Dana Nessel is leading a multistate lawsuit that challenges the decisions and role of billionaire businessman Elon Musk within the Department of Government Efficiency that President Donald Trump established last month.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of 14 states, was filed Thursday in Washington's D.C.'s federal district court and seeks to rein in Musk and his associates as they disrupt operations in federal agencies.

Musk has "unprecedented and seemingly limitless access" to personal identifiable information and departments across government despite being an unelected and unappointed employee not subject to the advice and consent of Congress, Nessel said. DOGE's actions are an "unconstitutional exercise of authority."

"I can think of few examples more egregious, really in history, than that that has been exhibited by Elon Musk and his Department of Governmental Efficiency associates,” Nessel said. The suit is being brought on behalf of the people of Michigan, meaning Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declined to sign on to the suit.

The Nessel-led lawsuit, predicated on an alleged violation of the appointments clause, seeks a court order invalidating Musk's directives and actions and restraining Musk from exercising further authority over other persons in executive branch offices and departments.

The suit accuses Musk of "unraveling agencies, accessing sensitive data, and causing mass chaos and confusion" for state and local governments, federal employees and the American people" without proper legal authorization or supervision.

The appointments clause, which requires Congress to create new offices and the Senate to confirm a nominee to lead them, is meant to "buttress against the separation of powers and guard against a tyrannical figure," said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.

Members of Congress should be putting more of a check on Musk's power, but have failed to do so, Nessel said.

"Their lack of action motivates us even more to take these actions to the courts," she said.

Because Musk does not occupy an office of the U.S. and has not been officially nominated, "his officer-level actions are thus unconstitutional," the lawsuit said. The suit also accuses Musk and DOGE of conduct in excess of authority.

Musk currently is acting a "special government employee" within DOGE, which was created via executive order to increase efficiency across federal government.

In that position, Musk exercises "virtually unchecked power" — more than any other position within the executive branch aside from the president — on "expenditures, contracts, government property, regulations, and the very existence of federal agencies," the suit argues.

DOGE personnel have inserted themselves "into at least 17 federal agencies," including the Department of Treasury, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education. And Musk appears to report directly to Trump with "significant autonomy regarding when, how frequently and what depth he briefs the president," the lawsuit argued.

"If there were any doubt about the reach of Mr. Musk’s defacto power over Executive-Branch operations, his remarks delivered from the Oval Office on February 11, 2025 — with the President sitting in silence at the Resolute as Mr. Musk held the floor — should dispel it," the lawsuit said.

Aside from Michigan, the states participating in the suit include New Mexico, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Vermont.

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