Billionaire Elon Musk appears to have overstepped his executive branch authority with his Department of Government Efficiency, a federal judge said Tuesday as he indefinitely blocked the dismantling of USAID.

“The court finds that Defendants’ unilateral actions to shut down USAID likely violated the United States Constitution,” said Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the US District Court in Maryland.

Chuang said that DOGE cannot terminate any more contracts or grants of USAID, nor can it fire or put on leave any more employees. He also cut off DOGE staffers from sharing sensitive personal data kept by the agency, in a major win for groups broadly challenging Musk’s role in the federal government.

The ruling, placing a preliminary injunction on DOGE, is one of the first major rulings to limit Musk’s work in the federal government because of the US Constitution.

And it may chart the way other courts will look at Musk, as his efforts and the Trump administration are challenged for attempting to dismantle other government agencies and abruptly cut back federal spending.

“Today’s decision is an important victory against Elon Musk and his DOGE attack on USAID, the US government and the Constitution,” said Norm Eisen, executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, which backs the lawsuit. “They are performing surgery with a chainsaw instead of a scalpel, harming not just the people USAID serves but the majority of Americans who count on the stability of our government. This case is a milestone in pushing back on Musk and DOGE’s illegality.”

The White House on Tuesday criticized the judge in response to the ruling. “Rogue judges are subverting the will of the American people in their attempts to stop President Trump from carrying out his agenda,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement. “If these Judges want to force their partisan ideologies across the government, they should run for office themselves.”

President Donald Trump blasted the judge’s decision later Tuesday, telling Fox News in an interview his administration plans to appeal the ruling.