Feb. 14 (UPI) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a multi-state lawsuit Thursday, seeking to stop Elon Musk from what she calls an unlawful delegation of executive power.
Mayes and New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nesse and 11 other Attorneys General filed the lawsuit, alleging that President Donald Trump violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution by creating a new federal department without Congressional approval, and by granting Musk sweeping powers over the entire federal government without seeking the advice and consent of the Senate.
“The founders of this country would be outraged that, 250 years after our nation overthrew a king, the people of this country — many of whom have fought and died to protect our freedoms — are now subject to the whims of a single unelected billionaire,” Mayes said in a release laying out the conditions of the 14 state legal action.
“Allowing one individual to flout the law without consequence threatens our entire constitutional system. We cannot allow our democratic processes to be hijacked by immense wealth and privilege.”
Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency via executive order on his first day in office and named Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, its leader, giving him largely unchecked power and access to classified areas of the federal government. Musk has said he is going through federal spending one department at a time and seeks to improve government transparency and efficiency.
In a 20-plus minute wide-ranging and often rambling news conference Wednesday, Musk stood and addressed reporters while his son sat atop his shoulders, and gave examples of what he termed wasteful spending by government “fraudsters” who were enriching themselves at taxpayer expense, while Trump looked on while seated at his desk next to Musk.
The lawsuit says Musk has sought to dismantle entire federal agencies, illegally accessed sensitive and classified information and caused widespread fear and disruption among employees at all levels of government.
“Empowering an unelected billionaire to access Americans’ private data, slash funding for federal student aid, stop payments for American farmers and dismantle protections for working families is not a sign of Trump’s strength, but his weakness,” said Torrez of Musk and his actions.
A federal judge last week issued a temporary injunction, putting on hold a Trump executive order that would have laid off at least 2,000 USAID employees, ruling that the sudden layoffs would cause undue stress on employees and their families.
“The complaint further asserts that Musk’s actions violate the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which ensures that executive appointments are subject to congressional oversight and Senate confirmation,” Mayes continued.
The attorneys general argue that Musk’s sweeping actions threaten the operational stability of the United States by imperling billions of dollars in federal funding essential for law enforcement, healthcare, education and other critical services.
“State agencies depend on federal funds and cooperative agreements, and the termination of these partnerships will result in severe budget shortfalls, staffing crises and the potential loss of key programs,” the statement continued.
The attorneys general go on to allege that “reckless” efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, manipulation of IT infrastructure and access to treasury databases by unauthorized people puts the nation’s security at risk in addition to running the risk of upending the public school system.
