A US federal judge ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump had “no constitutional authority” to fire staff and terminate programmatic activities at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) (United States Inst. of Peace v. Jackson). In her opinion, Judge Howell stated that the Administration violated §4605(f) of the USIP Act—the “for-cause removal” provision—when it removed USIP board members and installed new acting president Kenneth Jackson. She described President Trump’s actions as a “gross usurpation of power.”

President Trump issued Executive Order 14217 entitled “Commencing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy” on February 19. The order targeted numerous organizations, including USIP, for the reduction of “the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.” Officials from the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attempted to gain access to USIP offices on March 17, eventually with the assistance of DC police after the former acting USIP president, George Moose, refused to allow them entry. Judge Howell denied USIP’s request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the basis that it failed to “make the sufficient showings of likelihood of success on the merits and likelihood of suffering irreparable harm.”

USIP brought its case against the administration at the US District Court for the District of Columbia on March 18. In the complaint, plaintiffs alleged that defendants wrongly categorized USIP as part of the “Federal bureaucracy.” They requested that the court enter injunctions preventing the government from removing board members and “exercising any access or control” over USIP property. In response, the administration claimed that USIP is “an independent establishment of the Executive Branch” and therefore the President can remove board members under Article II of the Constitution.

USIP was created by a Congressional Act in 1984, in order to:

…serve the people and the Government through the widest possible range of education and training, basic and applied research opportunities, and peace information services on the means to promote international peace and the resolution of conflicts among the nations and peoples of the world without recourse to violence.

The court did not accept either party’s position, concluding that USIP does not exercise governmental power and “is not part of the Executive branch” but “must be considered part of the federal government.” However, because USIP’s activities are “not executive in nature… nor in exclusive furtherance of Executive branch priorities” the court concluded that the institute does not fall under the President’s Article II powers concerning removal (also stating that even if it did, he would still not have “absolute removal authority.”) Judge Howell granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, reversing the board terminations and reinstating George Moose as USIP president.