A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has denied a request to block the Department of Government Efficiency's takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
That's despite the fact that the judge has serious concerns about the tactics DOGE used to force its way into USIP.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas was at the federal courthouse yesterday in Washington. So, Ryan, all this stems from a lawsuit that was filed by several members of the USIP board. What is it that they were asking the court to do here?
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Right, five members of the USIP board filed this lawsuit overnight Tuesday. The court held a hearing on it Wednesday afternoon, so that gives you a sense of the urgency here. What the lawsuit argues is that the USIP board members were unlawfully removed from their positions by President Trump. They say that USIP is an independent nonprofit think tank created and funded by Congress, so it's not a part of the executive branch, they say. The board members who are suing, they want to be reinstated. They want to stop the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the institute and its operations. Now, at this hearing, what they were asking the judge to do was to temporarily block DOGE's takeover of USIP, to get DOGE out of the institute and its systems and to get the board members back in.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and the judge denied that request. So what was her reasoning?
LUCAS: Well, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said that there was confusion in this complaint itself, in the lawsuit. She also pointed out that a temporary restraining order, which is the specific ask that was being made yesterday, is really an extraordinary step. There are certain thresholds, legal thresholds, that have to be met for a court to agree to take that step. And what Howell said was that a couple of those thresholds just weren't met, including the likelihood of this lawsuit to succeed on the merits. So she declined to block DOGE's takeover for now. DOGE will be allowed to remain in control of the U.S. Institute of Peace for the time being as the court continues to consider this lawsuit. But still, Howell made very clear at this hearing that she had very serious concerns about DOGE and how it had gone about gaining access to USIP.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, the DOGE staff went into that building with the help of D.C. police. I mean, is that what the judge was concerned about? Is that what she was talking about?
LUCAS: Yes, but it wasn't just that. Two FBI agents also made a house call to the head of USIP security over the weekend to question him. The lawsuit also alleges that FBI agents threatened a criminal investigation, that the D.C. U.S. attorney's office also threatened a criminal investigation. I'll say, prosecutors didn't dispute that at yesterday's hearing. And then you also have, as you said, armed D.C. police officers showing up at USIP and escorting senior staff from the building. Judge Howell said that she was, quote-unquote here, "very offended by how DOGE has operated" at USIP, by how it treated American citizens, as the judge said, just trying to do their job. She said that those actions were probably terrorizing for folks at USIP. And she asked, why act like that? Why? Was it just because DOGE was in a rush?
MARTÍNEZ: Well, there's been a lot of tension between the courts and the Trump administration, and this case is a part of that. Now, this ruling went the administration's way, but a lot of court rulings in the lawsuits challenging administration policies have not.
LUCAS: That's right. There are a lot of cases out there right now challenging administration policies. The president and his allies have been lashing out at judges who have ruled against the administration. They've called for judges to be impeached. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement this week pushing back on that. Now, judges always say that they rule on the facts and the law that are before them in a given case. And, look, I was in court last week when Judge Howell blocked a Trump order targeting a law firm. And then yesterday, same judge - Judge Howell - looked at the facts and the law in the USIP case and declined to block DOGE's actions at USIP.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas. Ryan, thanks.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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