‘The Appointments Clause has nothing to say’: Trump admin scoffs at challenge to DOGE’s authority by likening agency head to Hillary Clinton, Karl Rove

Donald Trump, on the left; Elon Musk; on the right; Hillary Clinton inset.

Inset center: Hillary Clinton at an event in New York City on Sept. 19, 2022 (Spencer Platt/Getty Images). Background: President-elect Donald Trump listens to Elon Musk as he arrives to watch SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship lift off for a test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Nov. 19, 2024 (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP, File).

The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing back against a legal challenge to Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration by likening him to Hillary Clinton, Karl Rove, and John Podesta.

On Feb. 13, New Mexico and 13 other states filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court over the constitutional legitimacy of Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with an iteration of the exact same argument that spelled doom for onetime special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

This argument was explicitly tied to the concurrence penned by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the landmark opinion creating presidential immunity for criminal acts. Just as U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon used the concurrence to squelch Smith’s authority and dismiss the case against Trump with a novel reading of the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause, New Mexico and the other states hoped to put Musk out to pasture as well.

The government says the plaintiffs’ read is entirely off-base.

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