Finally, Trump is sued to stop the illegal DOGE destruction

The Reductions in Force (RIFs) being used to deconstruct the federal government are an illegal usurpation of Congressional authority by Trump and Musk. There is a hearing set for May 9th.

‘The restructuring of HHS is proceeding in accordance with President Trump's Executive Order [14210], “Implementing the President’s … Workforce Optimization Initiative.”’ So says the Fact Sheet released by Trump’s HHS on April 3rd.

That statement may end up being the key to stopping the illegal RIFs that are doing so much damage to NIH and other American science agencies.

Last week, the legal organization Protect Democracy joined a coalition of legal groups, cities and towns, and labor unions in suing Trump. That suit explains that our Constitution gives only Congress — not the President — “the power to reorganize and deconstruct federal agencies through massive reductions in force.” The president’s executive orders are not law: they are essentially formalized memos to government employees. But when the actions demanded by executive orders violate the law, the executive orders’ directions are void and should not be followed.

The suit asserts that the executive order, and the RIFs that agencies are conducting now, are both unconstitutional because they violate the Constitution’s fundamental separation of powers principle.

And the quote that leads off this post makes that link. HHS admits that they are indeed conducting the RIFs in accordance with the executive order. If and when courts find the executive order violates separation of powers, the RIFs must be reverted.

Protect Democracy has a blog post that goes into more detail. It’s worth a read. One section should give energy to all the civil servants at NIH now who are working so hard to keep US science afloat.

A broad coalition of plaintiffs is standing up on behalf of the civil service and the work you do. They realize your value and the incredible value of your work. The plaintiffs include cities and counties across the country, organizations that represent everyone from farmers to scientists to veterans, and large labor unions. Together, they’ve sued President Trump, OPM, OMB, DOGE, and well over a dozen agencies where the RIF process is playing out to put a stop to the illegal destruction of the federal government as we know it.

“The illegal destruction of the federal government as we know it.” That is indeed what is at stake here.

For scientists funded by NIH: grants staff have been subject to the illegal RIF

If you’re at a university, you should care a lot about these RIFs. Grants management officers at many institutes have been gutted by both the RIFs and firings of probationary employees. Scientific review officers that organize study sections have been removed too. Program staff in some cases have been affected. There are other reasons, including early retirements, that have moved out grants staff, but the RIFs are a big part of those effects.

So grant review and award work is being hampered by the RIFs. If we want NIH to function to score grants and get grant money out to well-scored grants, we should be focusing on the illegal nature of the RIFs.

For scientists at NIH: purchasing staff have been subject to the illegal RIF

For scientists in the NIH intramural program, the RIFs are apparent and terrible. Colleagues at NIH have been disappeared by the RIFs, and those colleagues do all sorts of science and support work. Perhaps the purchasing and contracting staff that have been RIF’d are most obviously important to doing science. Everyone with a stake in the basic science and clinical research done in NIH facilities should also pay attention to these court cases.

How this case may play out

What should we expect to happen now?

While it seems clear that the President does not have the right to destroy via RIF the capacity to execute Congressionally-mandated agency functions, much will turn on which courts and which judges are weighing in on this case.

The case was filed in the Northern District of California, and assigned to Judge Susan Illston, a liberal appointee. You can find the docket here. A motion for a temporary restraining order (TRO) was filed on May 1. It asks for, amonst other things, to block or enjoin “…execution of any existing reduction in force (“RIF”) notices.” Most of the NIH RIFs would be finalized in early June. So if the judge grants the order, it will make the NIH RIF notices invalid and put people back to work supporting US science and universities and sending out funds that scientists have won for excellent proposals. The hearing on the motion is set for this Friday, May 9, at 10:30am Pacific.

That’s the big hearing. Will the judge grant a TRO? Let’s hope.

credit: Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

What comes after any TRO will be big. Republicans would almost certainly call for the judge’s impeachment — an entirely laughable situation, as the judges that do deserve impeachment are those like Clarence Thomas who have accepted payments from Trump-allied billionaires. (Not kidding. We should laugh in the face of anyone who proposes impeaching judges who decide against Trump.)

After the district court acts, Trump and his minders like Stephen Miller and Russ Vought will try to get any TRO up to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible, where a majority of justices have issued political decisions to protect Trump.

What would happen at the Supreme Court? It’s hard to predict with certainty. But it seems likely from here that the Supreme Court will find a way to use its shadow docket to in effect overturn the TRO, perhaps by “playing fast and loose with terminology to obscure what it is actually doing,” as even far-right Federalist Society lawyer Josh Blackman said about the SCOTUS order in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case.

As so often with Trump and Republican party action, the way for us to beat their deception is to get out in front of it. We should start saying now that the Supreme Court must let any TRO stand — and not just stand “in part” while the order actually overturns the TRO, but actually let the effect of the TRO stand. If the district court judge stops the RIFs with a TRO, we must demand the Supreme Court shadow docket decision on the TRO must also stop the RIFs.

Spread the word to your friends and colleagues. We should start talking about what the Supreme Court will do in this case now. This case deserves a lot of our attention.

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This is a contributed post to the Alt NIH 4 Science blog. We’re interested in posting more writing and information about US science and the Trump science onslaught. If you’re a US scientist and/or an NIH’er, please feel free to send us posts or pitches.