President Trump’s attempt to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development suffered a significant setback Tuesday when a federal judge ruled that the cutbacks violate the Constitution in “multiple ways.”

A federal district court judge in Maryland, Theodore Chuang, ruled that Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency violated the Constitution when they “effectively eliminated USAID.”

Mr. Chuang, an appointee of President Obama, ordered the Trump administration to reinstate email and computer access to all USAID employees, including those who were placed on leave. The lawsuit, which argues that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate, was filed by USAID employees and contractors.

The judge also ruled in his preliminary injunction that Mr. Musk and DOGE “shall not take any action, or engage in any work, relating to the shutdown of USAID.”

Mr. Chuang said that Mr. Musk’s statements and social media posts show that he has “firm control over DOGE,” despite questions about the precise nature of his position. When the cuts were ordered, the judge said, it was at the direction of someone acting as if he had the authority of a Senate-confirmed administrator.

While Mr. Chuang blocked Mr. Musk from implementing further cuts at USAID, he said the Trump administration could still carry out its goals of gutting the agency if the cuts were directed by the agency’s leadership.

Secretary of State Rubio said in February that he is the acting administrator of USAID. It is possible that Mr. Rubio could order the cuts as the acting leader of the agency in the wake of Mr. Chuang’s ruling. 

The State Department did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication. 

Mr. Rubio said last week that the agency completed a six-week effort to eliminate programs that “spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.”

He said that 5,200 of USAID’s 6,200 programs had been eliminated, and the remaining programs, “in consultation with Congress,” would be administered by the State Department. 

Mr. Chuang’s ruling is not the only decision impacting the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID. On March 11, hours after Mr. Rubio’s post, Judge Amir Ali ruled that the administration overstepped its authority by putting a freeze on funding of foreign aid that had been approved by Congress. 

“The constitutional power over whether to spend foreign aid is not the President’s own — and it is Congress’s own,” Mr. Ali said.