A federal court has certified a class action in the case of Does v. Musk, 2025 BL 291150, D. Md., No. 25-0462-TDC, 8/18/25. The case involves U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees who are part of a mass layoff directed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which plans to merge USAID with the U.S. State Department. The certification ensures that the USAID employees may pursue a class action lawsuit, an increasingly popular form of lawsuit, considering the U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the use of nationwide injunctions.
DOGE notified USAID employees via email on March 28, 2025, that they would receive reduction-in-force (RIF) notices for separation by either July 1, 2025, or September 2, 2025. Although DOGE’s actions have faced constant legal challenges, the U.S. Supreme Court permitted DOGE to access Social Security data back in June, after Musk’s hasty departure in May.
In this case, the employees claim that DOGE’s actions violated the appointments clause and separation of powers, as the agency exercised powers belonging solely to Congress in shuttering USAID. The court granted the employees’ preliminary injunction and denied the defendants’ motions to dismiss, except for the claims against President Donald Trump.
The class is composed of all civil service, foreign service, foreign service limited, and foreign service national employees, as well as personal services contractors, who were U.S. citizens or working in the U.S. between January 27, 2025, and the present. Administrators and deputy administrators are excluded from the class. The court also excluded cooperating country and third-country national personal service employees, who were non-U.S. citizens working in foreign countries.
According to the judge’s ruling, the class is large enough and its members have common issues of law and fact in their claims, which are typical of and will adequately represent the class. The common issues in their appointments clause claim include the following:
Whether Musk initially decided to dismantle USAID, and if so, whether an appointed U.S. officer should have made that determination;
Whether Musk was the de facto DOGE administrator; and
Whether Musk’s position was “continuing” for the purposes of the appointment clause.
The common issues in their separation of powers claim involve whether the defendants actions eliminated USAID as an independent agency, and if so, whether that elimination violated the separation of powers.
Due to the class status granted by the judge, the entire class may obtain relief through a single injunction or declaration judgment.
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