Nevada joins lawsuit challenging establishment of Elon Musk's DOGE

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford speaks during a news conference at the Nevada Attorney General’s Las Vegas office Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. Attorneys general from 18 states, including Nevada, are suing the Trump administration to stop it from eliminating birthright citizenship. Photo by Steve Marcus

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has joined another lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s administration, this time arguing his establishment of the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” is unconstitutional, Ford’s office said today.

“The Trump administration has handed unchecked power over the federal government to an unelected and unvetted businessman who considers himself above the law,” Ford said in a statement. “As much as they would like us to believe otherwise, this is not a discussion about federal government spending. This is a discussion about the rule of law and the assurance to Nevadans that the federal government will not actively work to make their lives worse. Musk’s actions are illegal, and we will stop them.”  

The lawsuit, filed by 14 states in federal court in Washington D.C., says DOGE violates the Appointments Clause by existing as a new federal department without the required congressional approval. Trump issued an executive order his first day in office to establish the agency with the goal of scaling back the size of government. 

“Mr. Musk’s seemingly limitless and unchecked power to strip the government of its workforce and eliminate entire departments with the stroke of a pen or click of a mouse would have been shocking to those who won this country’s independence,” the lawsuit reads. “There is no office of the United States, other than the President, with the full power of the Executive Branch, and the sweeping authority now vested in a single unelected and unconfirmed individual is antithetical to the nation’s entire constitutional structure.”

Ford’s office said Musk’s and Trump’s actions “threaten the financial and operational stability of the States” by its attempts to scale back federal funding for agencies. 

The states are requesting the court to issue a temporary restraining order and, until a motion for preliminary injunction can be presented, orders Musk to identify all ways in which any data was obtained “through unlawful agency access.” 

The states also seek for Musk to destroy copies of “unauthorized” data and bar DOGE from ordering the change in disbursement of public funds by agencies, canceling government contracts and taking steps to dismantle agencies. 

Musk’s wide-ranging actions have made waves for overreach, prompting a series of lawsuits — including one Ford joined last week to stop DOGE from accessing federal payment systems that contained personal data such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans.

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., said his constituents have been sharing concerns to his office about Musk’s level of access to sensitive information. 

“They’re very concerned that their identity is at risk, that information could be used for nefarious purposes,” Horsford said. “We don’t know why Elon Musk even has this access, or what or how he intends to use it. He’s the richest man in the world, he has billions of dollars in federal contracts, and the fact that he now has access to some of the most sensitive data of Americans across the country is very, very alarming.” 

Ford additionally joined a lawsuit with 17 other states to challenge the restriction on birthright citizenship during the president’s first week in office. Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, granted a preliminary injunction Thursday, making him the fourth judge to halt the order. 

Another legal success against the Trump administration came for Ford in his lawsuit against the administration after Judge John McConnell of the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island issued a temporary restraining order last month on a multistate lawsuit after states filed following the Office of Management and Budget memo calling to freeze federal grants and loans. McConnell’s order prohibits the administration from imposing a blanket freeze on federal funding and remains until the next hearing expected later this month.

Musk earlier this week joined Trump in the White House to defend DOGE and its proposed cuts. Musk dominated the gathering to further stir claims from Democrats that he has an overabundance of power.

“The people voted for major government reform,” Musk said from the Oval Office Tuesday. “And that’s what people are going to get.”

The other states joining in the lawsuit against Musk and Trump are New Mexico, Arizona, Michigan, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Washington and Vermont.