A labor union, nonprofit and regional government alliance, including Chicago, Baltimore and Harris County, Texas, is the broadest legal challenge for President Trump to carry out a massive overhaul of the federal government.

In a lawsuit filed late Monday, the plaintiffs alleged that President Elon Musk's actions and heads of nearly twenty federal agencies significantly reduced the size of the federal workforce, in violation of the Constitution because Congress has not authorized them yet.

"For three months in this administration, there is no doubt that the affected federal agencies are acting in line with the direction given by President Trump through Doge, OMB and OPM," the lawsuit noted.

“Over and over, the newly appointed agency head explained that they were reorganizing, eliminating plans, and cutting thousands of jobs because the president directed them to go because Doge told them how much and what.”

The plaintiffs included some unions and nonprofits that fired the Trump administration on a massive scale in the same federal court in San Francisco. In this case, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup found that OPM illegally directed six federal agencies to terminate their recent employees and promote new positions to new positions. ALSUP ordered the recovery of more than 16,000 fired workers. The Supreme Court later revoked the recovery order but has not considered whether the firing was illegal.

The new complaint further raises Trump's February 11 executive order "Implementing the President's Government Efficiency' Labor Optimization Initiative" and actions taken since the administration have implemented the "usurpation" of Congress' authority in the Constitution.

The argument goes deep into history and points out: “Since the founding of the nation, the federal courts have recognized that federal institutions were not created by the president”, and Congress has the only power to undertake the wholesale transformation that Trump ordered.

However, Congress, led by Trump’s Republican allies, chose to close government plans and shut down federal buildings as the administration launches federal workers.

Trump touted these actions as a restoration of accountability. He has repeatedly argued that through the 2024 election, the American people have given him the task of eliminating federal waste, fraud and inefficiency.

The plaintiff invoked irreparable harm, demanding that the court evacuate Trump's executive order and accompany the agency issued by OMB and OPM, about how the order was executed. They also asked the court to make the agency “reduce force” or RIF plans, believing that the compression schedule (that is only a few weeks’ thing) was proposed by the Trump administration to submit the approval plan and did not allow proper compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

The lawsuit is directed to Musk's morality. This is to install representatives in government agencies to guide labor reduction. The plaintiff noted that unlike OMB and OPM, Congress has not granted any form of statutory powers, so the plaintiff wrote: “The Governor simply has no power to require Congress to cut down or cut expenditures at any level by institutions created and managed by Congress.”

The White House did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on the lawsuit.