Lawsuit seeks to halt dismantling of USAID

A lawsuit filed late Thursday on behalf of the unions representing employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development argues that the Trump administration’s actions to shutter the agency are unconstitutional. The lawsuit — filed against U.S. President Donald Trump, the U.S. State Department, USAID, the U.S. Treasury Department, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent — seeks an injunction to stop the actions the administration is taking, especially ahead of the remaining direct hire staff, save some 290, being placed on administrative leave at 11:59 p.m. Friday. “We want to halt that, and we want to reverse some of the harms that have already befallen so many American workers who work for USAID and as well as the people that they serve around the world,” Lauren Bateman, an attorney for Public Citizen Litigation Group and one of the lawyers representing the unions, said on a call with reporters on Thursday. The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order requiring the government to immediately “reverse these unlawful actions” — which include halting U.S. foreign aid, shutting down USAID, and firing or placing on leave most of the workforce — and to stop any further steps to dissolve the agency until the court can weigh in. “This action seeks declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to a series of unconstitutional and illegal actions taken by President Donald Trump and his administration that have systematically dismantled the United States Agency for International Development,” the lawsuit reads. “These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled U.S. national security interests.” The federal lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C., and argues that the actions taken by the administration violate the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers clause, with the president and the executive branch overstepping their authority; the “take care clause,” which requires that the president “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed”; and it brings claims under the Administrative Procedures Act, alleging that the administration “acted arbitrarily and capriciously and in excess of statutory authority,” Bateman explained. “Congress established USAID as an independent agency separate from the State Department, and has specified that appropriations to fund the agency may not be used to implement a reorganization or redesign of the agency without Congress,” Bateman said. “The administration cannot, under the Constitution and under federal law, take the actions that it has taken.” In addition to arguing that the shuttering of the agency is unconstitutional, the case details some of the harms to the plaintiffs: the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees. The American Foreign Service Association represents nearly 2,000 foreign service officers and 500 noncareer foreign service limited officers, who are “patriots” that implement the policies of the president and his national security team, said Randy Chester, the USAID vice president at AFSA, a career foreign service officer who has worked at USAID for 21 years. “We work as part of one of the agencies under the authority of the U.S. ambassador in a given country. We contribute to the achievement of the U.S. government strategy in that country. Our budget is developed with the State Department and approved by the secretary of state. We are not a rogue agency,” he said on the press call. The lawsuit also details the worldwide impacts of the Trump administration’s actions, including generating a “global humanitarian crisis.” It highlights the fact that clinics stopped distributing HIV medication; that humanitarian operations in Syrian refugee camps were forced to stop; that soup kitchens feeding nearly a million people facing famine in Khartoum, Sudan, were shut down; and doctors forced to choose whether to comply with stop-work orders or treat severely malnourished children. “Without judicial intervention it will only get worse,” the lawsuit argues. For more than a week, questions have swirled about whether a lawsuit challenging the administration’s dismantling of USAID would be forthcoming, especially as legal action against other administration directives saw success. However, many organizations worried about making themselves a target should they sue first, stymieing legal challenges until now. “Anyone who’s in Washington, D.C. knows the fear that has now spread among federal employees,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen. “People are scared for their jobs, their livelihoods, the things they care about, are passionate about, their families, their future.” The unions acting collectively makes it so no one individually has to take the risk, he added. So why now? Robin Thurston, the legal director at Democracy Forward, which is also representing the plaintiffs, said: “We acted urgently when it became clear that the administration was violating the Constitution and causing so much harm to the people who work at USAID and are supported by it around the world. We acted immediately and quickly after that sabotage became clear.”