by Colin Kalmbacher at Law&Crime
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., handed the Trump administration a substantial win on Friday by allowing the government to further “dismantle” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a 26-page memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a President Donald Trump appointee, dissolved a previous temporary restraining order and denied a request for a preliminary injunction.
On Feb. 7, the plaintiffs, two government employees unions led by the American Foreign Service Association — which is the exclusive representative for the U.S. Foreign Service — filed a lawsuit accusing Trump of “unlawful actions” that “exceed presidential authority and usurp legislative authority conferred upon Congress by the Constitution, in violation of the separation of powers.”
Later that same day, Nichols granted a “limited” temporary restraining order barring the government from placing USAID employees on administrative leave and performing expedited evacuations of such employees from their overseas posts. The order rejected a request to block a 90-day pause on “foreign assistance funding.”…
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