The US Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 17, 2025.
Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the Trump administration and DOGE’s takeover and gutting of the U.S. Institute of Peace were unlawful.
The decision declaring DOGE’s actions at USIP “null and void” is the latest in a series of judicial rebukes of efforts by President Donald Trump and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency to slash the size of the federal government. DOGE has been led by Trump advisor Elon Musk.
The ruling came two months after DOGE team members took over the headquarters of USIP with the help of law enforcement. That move came after Trump signed an executive order that said that the independent non-profit group created by Congress 40 years ago to promote conflict resolution was “unnecessary.”
DOGE then replaced USIP’s acting president, George Moose, with DOGE officials and terminated nearly all of its staff. The Trump administration removed USIP’s board members.
Judge Beryl Howell, in her ruling Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ordered the reinstatement of Moose, calling the officials who replaced him “illegitimately installed.”
Howell wrote that the administration’s “severe actions to dissemble USIP, including terminating its appointed Board members, its expert management, its dedicated staff and contractors located in both Washington, D.C. and around the world, and dispersing its assets and headquarters building … were unlawful.”
She also wrote that “Congress’s restrictions on the President’s removal power of USIP Board members are squarely constitutional.”
Howell noted that Trump used force and “threats of criminal process” to take over the USIP headquarters, even though the agency is not part of the government’s executive branch.
“Instead, USIP supports both the Executive and Legislative branches as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services,” Howell wrote.
But “USIP’s existence outside of the Executive branch is the end of the inquiry,” Howell wrote.
“As explained earlier, the President has no constitutional removal authority outside of the Executive branch. President Trump’s removal of the ten board members here was thus unlawful.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Howell’s decision.
USIP had asked Howell in March to immediately block DOGE’s attempt to shut down the group.
At the time, Howell declined to issue a temporary restraining order to reinstate members of the board, calling USIP a “very complicated entity.”
