A D.C. District Court judge rejected a temporary restraining order request from U.S. Institute of Peace employees Thursday aimed at keeping the Department of Government Efficiency from dismantling the agency.
This is the second time Judge Beryl Howell stopped USIP’s move against DOGE, which instituted mass firings at the independent agency last month.
In a Thursday ruling, Judge Howell wrote that while DOGE’s actions at USIP have undoubtedly “wreaked havoc” on the lives of employees at the agency, the plaintiffs have failed to prove their specific legal claim: that firing USIP board members and employees was illegal.
“Both sides present strong arguments supporting their divergent views of the nature of USIP,” Judge Howell wrote in her decision. “This is no trivial legal dispute, given the number of other entities with similar or analogous structures and claims of independence from executive branch control, at least for certain purposes.”
Additionally, Judge Howell ruled that the plaintiffs, former USIP employees and donors, lacked standing on the issue of the transfer of USIP assets to the General Services Administration, which the DOGE-appointed USIP President Nate Cavanaugh initiated this month.
Ultimately, Judge Howell has decided to wait for the full briefing in the original challenge to DOGE’s takeover of USIP filed last month. Lawyers in that case were preparing their final response to the Justice Department’s briefing for the Friday deadline.
DOGE, with the help of local law enforcement, evicted USIP’s former leadership in mid-March, acting on President Trump’s Feb. 19 executive order targeting independent agencies. Hundreds of USIP employees soon received termination notices, and DOGE began proceedings to transfer all of USIP’s assets to GSA, an executive agency. USIP lawyers asked Judge Howell to stop the takeover in March, but were rejected.
Judge Howell is expected to issue a ruling on the legality of DOGE’s actions later this month.
Lawyers representing the former leadership at USIP argue that it’s not an executive agency and the White House has no legal right to institute mass firings.
The DOJ argues that USIP is plainly an executive agency since it carries out executive functions, has its board of directors appointed by the president and has been designated as a federal entity by the Office of Management and Budget.
“The entitled former thinkers of USIP are only proving President Trump’s point: Rogue bureaucrats have long operated without proper oversight by taxpayers and elected officials, and they must be reined in as agencies within the executive branch,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said of the employee suit.
The institute was established as an independent agency by an act of Congress in 1984 and receives federal funding to promote training, research and analysis on conflict resolution around the globe.
