The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the questionable leadership of Elon Musk, has quickly become the signature initiative of the second Trump administration. Since Inauguration Day, personnel associated with DOGE have fanned out to virtually every executive branch agency, systematically dismantling them from within by hacking their IT infrastructure, firing thousands of staff, and even attempting to shut down entire agencies.
DOGE’s actions epitomize the administration’s unprecedented cavalier, if not outright hostile, attitude toward the law and the U.S. Constitution. Despite initial assertions that it would act with complete transparency, instead this pseudo-public entity has done so covertly, with little to no checks from the executive or legislative branches.
Effective congressional oversight and curbing of DOGE’s harmful and illegal actions is clearly called for under countless statutes, as well as the U.S. Constitution. Until Congress takes up its legislative oversight duties, however, the best chance the nation has to limit the damage of DOGE is through litigation.
To help congressional leaders, concerned policymakers, and citizens understand the various ways that DOGE’s actions may be unlawful, the Center has established the Unmasking DOGE tool that catalogues the numerous legal infirmities that underlie both DOGE as an institution and the specific actions it is seeking to carry out. The tool also assembles background resources on these legal questions and materials relating to legal challenges raising these questions in court, and it outlines a wide variety of legal and advocacy strategies for responding to DOGE. The tool is distinct from other compilations of executive orders and administrative actions in that we're simultaneously researching the legal justifications for these orders and actions, evaluating their legal merits, and analyzing their potential weaknesses.
We plan to update this tool on a regular basis to provide a valuable resource for advocates, the press, policymakers, and members of the public interested in tracking DOGE’s efforts to illegally dismantle our democracy. We’ll do so by cataloging ongoing developments in lawsuits, academic think pieces, and information and analyses from other reputable sources.
Contributing to this project are Center for Progressive Reform Board Member and Member Scholar Alejandro Camacho and volunteer law students Serapia Kim, Semmie Lee, Maggie Maser, Rachel Sondkar, and Derek Yeghiazarian. To develop the general parameters of the tool, they consulted with a dozen leading administrative and constitutional law scholars.
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Alejandro Camacho, James Goodwin | March 18, 2025
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the questionable leadership of Elon Musk, has quickly become the signature initiative of the second Trump administration. Since Inauguration Day, personnel associated with DOGE have fanned out to virtually every executive branch agency, systematically dismantling them from within by hacking their IT infrastructure, firing thousands of staff, and even attempting to shut down entire agencies. To help congressional leaders, concerned policymakers, and citizens understand the various ways that DOGE’s actions may be unlawful, the Center has established the Unmasking DOGE tool that catalogues the numerous legal infirmities that underlie both DOGE as an institution and the specific actions it is seeking to carry out.
Federico Holm | March 18, 2025
Since our last update (March 10), we have crossed two important milestones regarding Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions: President Trump signed the first two resolutions into law, and the overall number of CRA resolutions introduced in Congress reached 60.
Joseph Tomain, Sidney A. Shapiro | March 17, 2025
Government has always been an essential part of American history, and this remains true today. Yet, as President Trump prepares, once again, to do his best to dismantle the administrative state, American history reveals why these efforts will ultimately fail. To appreciate that history, and what it means as the country moves into the Trump administration, we summarize key findings of our book.
Daniel Farber | March 13, 2025
While President Trump finds “tariff” one of the most beautiful words in the English language, I myself prefer “anti-backsliding.” Back in January, Trump told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to roll back efficiency standards on everything from light bulbs to shower heads. Some news outlets viewed this as an accomplished task, with headlines like “Trump Rolls Back Energy Standard.” But, as it turned out, not only was it not a done deal, it was also legally impossible. The reason: an anti-backsliding provision.
Daniel Farber | March 11, 2025
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to regulate carbon emissions from power plants have had a tortuous history, and we’re about to go through another round, with a rule from a Democratic administration being repealed and replaced by a Trump rule. The last time this happened, the Trump EPA said that its interpretation of the statute required an extraordinarily narrow substitute rule. Because of intervening legal changes, it won’t find it as easy to make that argument this time. In the end, the Trump substitute rule will undoubtedly be weak but not as weak as last time.
Federico Holm | March 10, 2025
As of Monday, March 10, legislators have introduced 57 Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions, including several that were introduced before the specified time cutoffs. We have continued to see some movement around some of the resolutions.
Catalina Gonzalez, Rachel Mayo | March 6, 2025
It is no coincidence that since taking office on Martin Luther King Day, the Trump administration’s most aggressive actions have targeted historically marginalized groups. In fact, the many blatantly illegal, unconstitutional, and bizarre actions we saw during the first month of Trump 2.0 — during which we also observed National Black History Month — are specifically harmful to Black Americans.
Daniel Farber | March 4, 2025
If you were looking for data-driven regulatory policy, you’re not going to find it in this administration. On the contrary, President Trump has marginalized economic analysis and wants to bulldoze environmental science. Thus, we are likely to get policies that are bad for the environment without being cost-justified while ignoring policies whose environmental benefits outweigh economic costs.
Federico Holm | March 3, 2025
As of February 28, legislators have introduced 45 Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions, including several that were introduced before the specified time cutoffs. As expected, we have started to see some movement around some of the resolutions.