A federal judge in Washington has ordered Elon Musk and operatives involved with his Department of Government Efficiency to hand over documents and answer questions about its role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs.

The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said Wednesday that the plaintiffs in the case — a coalition of 14 Democratic state attorneys general challenging Musk’s authority — had demonstrated a clear need to shed light on the inner workings of Musk’s team. It was the first time a judge has ordered Musk’s division be subject to discovery.

In the weeks after Musk’s team fanned out across federal agencies demanding access to federal offices and databases, lawyers seeking to stop the group’s advances have been forced to rely on news reports and anecdotal evidence about what, exactly, Musk’s team has been doing.

In many cases, federal judges have grown frustrated by the inability of the government’s own lawyers to answer straightforward questions about what data Musk’s associates have viewed, or to what extent the group had directly spearheaded recent downsizing efforts. In filings in another case, the government has also downplayed Musk’s role, claiming he was not officially the group’s leader.

The group of states had asked Chutkan to grant the request to let them probe Musk’s team for information in order to confirm details about its operations and its future plans, and to “illustrate the nature and scope of the unconstitutional and unlawful authority” they said Musk has so far exercised.

USPS says DOGE will help it lay off 10,000

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy plans to cut 10,000 workers and billions of dollars from the U.S. Postal Service budget and he’ll do that working with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter sent to members of Congress on Thursday.

DOGE will assist USPS with addressing “big problems” at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has sometimes struggled in recent years to stay afloat. The agreement also includes the General Services Administration in an effort to help the Postal Service identify and achieve “further efficiencies.”

USPS listed such issues as mismanagement of the agency’s retirement assets and Workers’ Compensation Program, as well as an array of regulatory requirements that the letter described as “restricting normal business practice.”

“This is an effort aligned with our efforts, as while we have accomplished a great deal, there is much more to be done,” DeJoy wrote.

Critics of the agreement fear negative effects of the cuts will be felt across America. Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, who was sent the letter, said turning over the Postal Service to DOGE would result in it being undermined and privatized.

“This capitulation will have catastrophic consequences for all Americans — especially those in rural and hard to reach areas — who rely on the Postal Service every day to deliver mail, medications, ballots, and more,” he said in a statement.

USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. The service plans to cut 10,000 employees in the next 30 days through a voluntary early retirement program, according to the letter.

Neither the USPS nor the Trump administration immediately responded to emails from the Associated Press requesting comment.

Birthright citizenship reaches high court

Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift a nationwide pause imposed on the president’s order ending birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants without legal status.

The move represents the first time the legal wrangling over the president’s order to end birthright citizenship has reached the Supreme Court. If the administration succeeds, the policy could go into effect in some parts of the country.

Three federal courts, in Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington state, had issued directives temporarily pausing the order, which was signed by Trump on his first day in office and declared that the government would no longer consider the U.S.-born children of people in the country illegally as citizens.

The Trump administration’s emergency applications are aimed at pushing back on nationwide injunctions, judicial orders that can block a policy or action from being enforced throughout the entire country, rather than just on those parties involved in the litigation. The tool has been used by both Democratic and Republican administrations, and a debate over such injunctions has simmered for years.

21 states sue Trump over purge at Education

A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration Thursday, two days after the Education Department fired more than 1,300 workers, purging people who administer grants and track student achievement across America.

The group, led by New York’s Letitia James and including Minnesota’s Keith Ellison, sued the administration in a Massachusetts federal court, saying the dismissals were “illegal and unconstitutional.”

“Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation, especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding,” James said in a news release. “This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal.”

The coalition is seeking a court order to stop what it called “policies to dismantle” the agency, arguing that the layoffs are just a first step toward its destruction.

Johns Hopkins laying off 2,000 after Trump cuts

Johns Hopkins University, one of the country’s leading centers of scientific research, said Thursday that it would eliminate more than 2,000 workers in the United States and abroad because of the Trump administration’s steep cuts, primarily to international aid programs.

The layoffs, the most in the Baltimore university’s history, will involve 247 domestic workers for the university and an affiliated center. Another 1,975 positions will be cut in 44 countries. They affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and an affiliated nonprofit.

Nearly half the school’s total revenue last year came from federally funded research, including $800 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Johns Hopkins is one of the top university recipients of the funding that the administration is aiming to slash. And it appears to be among the most deeply affected of the major research institutions that are reeling from cuts — or the threat of cuts — to federal money that they depend on for research studies and running labs.

In a statement Thursday calling it a “difficult day,” Johns Hopkins said it was “immensely proud” of its work on the projects, which included efforts to “care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water and advance countless other critical, lifesaving efforts around the world.”

CPB sues FEMA over alert funding

The federal government’s steward of funding for public broadcasting stations sued the Trump administration on Thursday over its pause in grant payments for upgrading the nation’s emergency alert system.

The nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s federal lawsuit says a recent hold on grant funds for modernizing the alert system hampers the ability of federal, state and local authorities to issue real-time emergency alerts.

The CPB sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington, D.C., to challenge its Feb. 18 hold on the $40 million grant program for the Next Generation Warning System.

FEMA didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the lawsuit.

The CPB administers the Next Generation Warning System grant program for FEMA.

TSA union files lawsuit over canceled labor pact

America’s largest federal employees union filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Homeland Security Department and its leadership to stop the Trump administration from canceling a collective bargaining agreement for Transportation Security Administration workers.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, is the latest example of how the union, the American Federation of Government Employees, has taken to the courts to challenge the administration’s efforts to undermine labor protections for government workers. The union says the bargaining agreement, approved in 2024, covers 47,000 transportation security officers.

Last Friday, the Homeland Security Department said it was ending the agreement, saying it had “constrained” the officers’ ability “to safeguard our transportation systems and keep Americans safe.”

The department’s statement took aim at the union, citing what it called unfair gaps in benefits programs; a culture of poor performance tolerated because of union protections; and TSA employees who work full time on union matters and do not assist with screening work.

Trump envoy: Canada is a sovereign state

President Donald Trump’s choice to be U.S. ambassador to Canada on Thursday said that America’s northern neighbor is a sovereign state, showing some daylight with Trump on the issue. The president has insisted that Canada would be better off as the United States’ newest member.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra was asked by at his Senate confirmation hearing by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., whether he agreed that Canada is a sovereign state and shouldn’t be “even jokingly referred to as the 51st state.”

“Canada is a sovereign state, yes,” Hoekstra replied. He was questioned shortly before Trump doubled down on his negative views of Canada during an Oval Office appearance with the head of NATO.

He continues to insist that Canada is among countries that take advantage of the United States.

Trump investigates migrants’ supporters

The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law used to prosecute smugglers.

The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” that federal grants used to address a surge of migration under former President Joe Biden were used for illegal activities, wrote Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

His letter, dated Tuesday and obtained by the Associated Press, asks recipients of grants from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide names and contact information for migrants served and “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” within 30 days. The letter says funding will be withheld during the review.

While it doesn’t explicitly threaten criminal prosecution, it raises concerns that recipients may have violated U.S. Criminal Code Section 1324, a felony offense against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States.

White House ends suit over migrant housing

The Trump administration moved to drop a civil lawsuit Wednesday against the largest provider of housing for migrant children over allegations of sexual abuse and harassment of unaccompanied minors, saying it also would no longer use the provider.

The motion to dismiss the suit against Southwest Key Programs was filed after the federal government announced it had moved all unaccompanied children to other shelters.

The complaint, filed last year during the Biden administration, alleged a litany of offenses between 2015 and 2023 as Southwest Key Programs, which operates migrant shelters in Texas, Arizona and California, amassed nearly $3 billion in contracts from the Department of Health and Human Services.

— News service reports