California AG Rob Bonta sues to block Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government
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BONTA, OTHER ATTORNEYS GENERAL SUE ELON MUSK’S DOGE
Another day, another lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta against President Donald Trump’s administration. But this time, it’s actually conservative billionaire Elon Musk’s turn in the legal limelight.
Bonta and 13 other attorneys general last week filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and they didn’t mince words.
“There is no greater threat to democracy than the accumulation of state power in the hands of a single, unelected individual. Although our constitutional system was designed to prevent the abuses of an 18th century monarch, the instruments of unchecked power are no less dangerous in the hands of a 21st century tech baron,” the complaint opens up.
It’s referencing Musk who, despite lacking either Senate confirmation or a vote of the people, has almost single-handedly taken control of the federal bureaucracy.
Musk has had help, of course, in the form of what he calls the Department of Governmental Efficiency, or DOGE, which is not a federal department. He’s installed a cadre of young men in key positions across the U.S. government, including a 19-year-old named Edward Coristine, or as he’s known online, “Big Balls.” No, really.
Musk has used this newfound power to shut off funding for whatever government programs he disapproves of. He also has access to millions of Americans’ personal, highly sensitive data, including their Social Security numbers and bank account information.
“Elon Musk may be the richest man in the world, but the law is clear: he has no authority to access your private information. The Constitution gives Congress — not the president — primary control over federal spending,” Bonta said in a statement Friday, as his coalition of Democratic AGs seeks a preliminary injunction to stop Musk in his tracks.
Trump has given Musk considerable latitude to re-shape the federal bureaucracy as he sees fit, including signing an executive order last week to that effect.
“By eliminating waste, bloat, and insularity, my administration will empower American families, workers, taxpayers, and our system of government itself,” Trump wrote.
CALIFORNIA VACCINE LAW AUTHOR WEIGHS IN ON RFK JR CONFIRMATION
The author of the landmark California law eliminating non-medical exemptions for child school vaccine requirements is, unsurprisingly, not a fan of newly installed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who for years spread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and misinformation, including in Samoa, the site of a deadly measles outbreak that killed dozens of children.
After the Senate last week voted on near-party lines (former GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a polio survivor, voted with Democrats to oppose) to confirm Kennedy to his position as America’s top health official, California State Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento said in a statement that he was “dismayed by the vote.
“Even as Americans today are experiencing outbreaks of measles and record influenza, whooping cough and tuberculosis infections, the White House issued Executive Order ‘Establishing the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission’ after RFK Jr.’s confirmation that shatters any fragile hope that the Department of Health and Human Services under Kennedy will be guided by scientific evidence and not ideology and conspiracy theories RFK Jr. has long espoused,” Pan wrote.
Pan praised California Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both Democrats, as well as McConnell “for standing up for America’s health and rejecting this unqualified and dangerous appointment.”
Pan, a Democrat, is no stranger to Kennedy’s anti-vaccine activism.
When Pan introduced a bill in 2019 barring anti-vaccine parents from using non-medical exemptions to get their children out of having to get shots required for them to attend school, Kennedy was a leader in the movement opposing it. After a heated legislative battle that saw intense pushback from anti-vaccine protesters, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The National Park Service has erased trans people from the Stonewall uprising: AN UPRISING TRANS PEOPLE HELPED LEAD. There’s a reserved spot in hell for the s*** stains pursuing this vile campaign to erase trans people. Trans people aren’t going anywhere. And we have their backs.”
- Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, discussing the Trump administrations’ removal of all mention of transgender people from the national monument at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, via Bluesky.
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This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 4:55 AM.