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Santa Clara and San Francisco counties on Monday have filed another lawsuit against the Trump Administration, this time challenging its recent termination of thousands of federal employees without congressional authority.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the two counties and a coalition of labor unions, nonprofit groups and local municipalities, argues that White House violated the Constitution’s fundamental principle of separation of powers when it issued an executive order in February directing federal departments to prepare for reductions in force and empowering the Elon Musk-led task force known as Department of Government Efficiency to work with departments to slash staffing.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of California, includes in its list of defendants President Donald Trump, Musk and various cabinet officials and department heads, including Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth; Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin; Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought.
“When the President takes for himself the legislative power of Congress to recreate federal agencies in the manner he sees fit, he violates the Constitution. … And when the President does so across every federal agency, he threatens the very constitutional foundation of this nation: ‘There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person.'” The complaint states.
This isn’t the first case in which the two counties have taken the Trump administration to court. In February, they joined forces to challenge the administration’s executive officer that threatened funding to “sanctuary” jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with federal agents on immigration enforcement. This time, they are challenging an executive order that Trump signed on Feb. 11 that aims to “reform the federal workforce to maximize efficiency and productivity.” Among other things, the executive director directs the federal departments to prepare for “large-scale reductions in force”; requires that each agency hire no more than one employee for every four that depart; and prohibits agencies from filling vacancies for career appointments that DOGE assesses should not be filled.
The executive order set the stage for significant downsizing in the federal workforce, according to the counties. This includes elimination by the Department of Health and Human Services of more than 10,000 positions throughout the Centers for Disease Control, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, changes that the counties argue threw “medical, public health and scientific community into chaos.” Other federal agencies, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, are expected to significantly downsize their workforces, according to an announcement from the counties.
“Once again, Santa Clara County is taking action to protect federal employees because without their life-saving research and service, millions of Americans will suffer,” Otto Lee, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement. “The current staffing mess in the federal government is inhibiting local governments like ours to serve our communities. What’s being sold as ‘efficiency’ has shown to be cruel and pure chaos, and this dangerous breakdown must be stopped immediately.”
The two counties are joined in the lawsuit by the cities of Chicago and Baltimore; Harris County, Texas, and Martin Luther King, Jr. County, Washington; the American Federation of Government Employees; Natural Resources Defense Council; Vote Vets Action Fund; and other labor and nonprofit organizations.
The recent actions by DOGE to slash federal workforce have faced backlash on the Peninsula, with thousands of residents turning up at recent protests at Tesla dealerships to demonstrate against the company’s chief executive officer, Musk. Palo Alto also approved a resolution last month, vowing to uphold the council’s values in the face of shifting federal priorities, and created a new process for considering litigation involving federal actions.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement that Trump’s “complete disregard for the rule of law has had incredibly harmful impacts on local communities.”
“The President cannot radically restructure federal agencies through massive layoffs with a mere signature on an executive order,” Shiu said. “Only Congress has the power to reorganize federal agencies as Trump wishes. The Constitution’s separation of powers was intended to prevent the abuse of presidential authority, yet here Trump is ignoring checks and balances and trying to act as both President and Congress.”
The lawsuit asks the federal court to declare that the White House and the various agency heads have violated the U.S. Constitution and enjoin agencies from following the Feb. 11 executive order on government reorganization.
