Lawsuits are pouring in to try to stop Trump's executive orders

• Donald Trump's day one executive orders are facing court challenges.
• Several lawsuits target his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
• Other lawsuits challenge his orders on birthright citizenship and firing federal workers.

President Donald Trump's executive orders — launched in a day one signing flurry — are being challenged by a similarly speedy blitz of lawsuits.

The lawsuits started to roll in on Monday within minutes of Trump being sworn into office for a second term. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Here are the Trump initiatives that have been targeted so far:

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency came under swift legal attack shortly after Trump signed an executive order formally creating the group that aims to slash wasteful federal spending.

Advocacy organizations and public interest groups quickly filed a handful of lawsuits in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against DOGE.

Three of four lawsuits filed argue that DOGE violates the transparency requirements of the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act. DOGE, the lawsuits say, is not a federal department and should be considered a federal advisory committee subject to the FACA law.

The law, which was designed to boost public accountability, covers advisory committees that are either formed or utilized by the president.

"Operating without complying with FACA, DOGE has already begun developing recommendations and influencing decision-making in the new administration, even though its membership lacks the fair balance required by FACA and its meetings and records are not open to public inspection in real time," one of the lawsuits, filed by the groups Public Citizen, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the American Federation of Government Employees, reads.

The January 20 executive order establishing DOGE, however, does so in a way that reorganizes and renames an existing government agency, the United States Digital Service.

As a government department — and not an outside advisory group — it's also subject to public records laws.

Another lawsuit, filed by several groups including the American Public Health Association and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, contends that DOGE is a "shadow operation led by unelected billionaires who stand to reap huge financial rewards from this influence and access."

"Despite these conflicts of interest, DOGE is slated to dictate federal policy in ways that will affect millions of Americans, including those communities that Plaintiffs represent," the lawsuit says. "It is doing so under a shroud of secrecy with none of the transparency, oversight, or opportunity for public participation the law requires."

A fourth lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Office of Management and Budget, seeks to compel the government agency to hand over records related to DOGE under the Freedom of Information Act.

"These records are important for the public to understand the threats to numerous environmental protections embodied in rules and orders and how, when, and under what circumstances the new administration intends to act on these threats," the lawsuit says.

On Tuesday, Musk, who was tapped by Trump to lead DOGE, made light of the lawsuits that have already been filed.

"Can someone start a lawsuit counter? How long until we hit triple digits?" Musk posted on his social-media platform X along with crying-while-laughing emoji.

A ban on birthright citizenship

One of Trump's executive orders targets the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. The order bars federal agencies from issuing documents recognizing the citizenship of babies born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally.

Under the order, citizenship would also be denied to children of mothers who are visa holders or otherwise in the country temporarily and to those whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents of the US.

The order is set to take effect 30 days after its signing.

Hours after the signing ceremony, advocacy groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the order.

The lawsuit says the order conflicts with the 14th Amendment's provision that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

"This principle has enabled generations of children to pursue their dreams and build a stronger America," the lawsuit says.

The ACLU filed the suit in federal court in New Hampshire on behalf of New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Make the Road New York — groups with members whose children would be denied citizenship under the order.

The lawsuit names Trump and the departments of state, homeland security, and agriculture as defendants, along with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The heads of these agencies are also sued, though by title, not by name.

Another lawsuit was filed later on Monday in Boston on behalf of an unnamed expectant mother with temporary protective status whose child would be denied citizenship. Two Massachusetts support agencies, the Brazilian Worker Center and La Colaborativa, are fellow plaintiffs.

On Tuesday, 18 state attorneys general and the top law enforcement officers of Washington, DC, and San Francisco joined in suing Trump, the State Department, DHS, and the Social Security Administration to block the law from taking effect.

"The principle of birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years," the lawsuit says.

Weakening job protections for federal workers

Another of Trump's executive orders would weaken job protections for some of the more than 2 million federal employees who are career civil servants and who — unlike political appointees — can only be fired for cause.

The order carves out an exemption to this protection, shifting some 50,000 of these career civil servants into a new category called "Schedule F" that allows them to be fired at will. It's similar to an order Trump signed late in his first administration, which was quickly challenged in a lawsuit before being withdrawn by the Biden administration.

A lawsuit filed late on Inauguration Day by the National Treasury Employees Union — the same group that sued in 2020 — seeks to block the order.

"When establishing hiring principles, Congress determined that most federal government jobs be in the merit-based, competitive service," the lawsuit says. "And it established that most federal employees have due process rights if their agency employer wants to remove them from employment."

Trump is named the lead defendant in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, DC. The other named defendants include the heads of six government agencies: the Office of Personnel Management, US Customs and Border Protection, the IRS, the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.