A judge turned the U.S. Institute of Peace back over to its unlawfully fired board members Monday, scolding the administration for using “brute force and threats of criminal process” to commandeer an organization that does not fall within President Trump’s removal powers.
While these firings targeted a small and fairly idiosyncratic government entity — U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell spends most of her opinion on the question of whether USIP is a government agency and whether it sits in the executive branch — they grabbed headlines when DOGE stormed the building in March with armed officers. Congress established the nonprofit to advance global peace and American interests.
“The President’s efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better,” Howell wrote in her Monday ruling.
She concluded that USIP is a government entity but exists outside of the three branches, comparing it to other quasi-federal government institutions including the governing body of the Smithsonian museums. Thus, Trump’s fairly broad (but not absolute) power to remove executive branch employees does not extend to the institute.
Even if USIP was housed in the executive branch, though, she wrote that Supreme Court precedent would likely still protect the board members from at-will removal.
“Numerous cases in the lower courts have applied Humphrey’s Executor to uphold removal protections for similarly constituted multimember boards, including the NLRB, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (‘CPSC’), and the FTC itself,” she wrote. “Though the precedent has recently come under attack, defendants agree that Humphrey’s Executor remains binding.”
Trump’s firing spree prompted parallel cases stemming from more traditional executive branch agencies, a couple of which are making their way toward the Supreme Court and will likely determine whether independent agencies will continue to enjoy insulation from the whims of the White House.
The granting of summary judgment Monday — letting the fired board take the agency back over, keeping the organization’s property in the board’s hands and expelling the DOGErs who appointed themselves to its leadership in the meantime — is a reversal of what Howell telegraphed at earlier stages of litigation.
After a March hearing where the fired board sought immediate relief, Howell denied them, expressing outrage with how the firings were carried out but skepticism about their likelihood to succeed on the merits. She also expressed uncertainty about the organization’s status within the government, an issue she ironed out over dozens of pages in the lengthy Monday ruling.
DOGE had taken over the organization largely to hollow out its staff and money, and to wind it down. Unlike other agencies that the administration has seen valuable to stock with allies, the Institute and its research, diplomatic and charitable works represented mere waste.
“The President second-guessed the judgment of Congress and President Reagan in creating USIP 40 years ago, and the judgment of every Congress since then, including in 2024, in appropriating funds to USIP, when he deemed this organization to be ‘unnecessary’ three months ago in [his executive order],” Howell wrote.
Read the ruling here:
While this sounds like good news, isn’t this one of the “independent” agencies where the DOGE Bros subsequently fired most of the staff and canceled contracts & grants? What happens now can’t erase that kind of damage.
Question? Who’s paying Musk’s team of Lost Boys? And who will pay the back salaries of these people who were unlawfully fired?
I think that USIP is an independent entity, and not an agency. Which is what Judge Howell found. If it’s a non-profit entity that gets is funding from Congress then in the end it certainly doesn’t fall under the POTUS’ purview. Though I do wonder if they only exist on the monies Congress allocates, or does it also get money from outside the US gov’t?
Yeah I keep wondering about this too. Who is paying them, who determined their salaries, and where’s their damn paperwork!
Sometimes the Onion is just too good : - )