Many of Trump's executive orders are being challenged in court: which cases has the president won and which has he lost

On February 27, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's mass layoffs of newly hired government employees were likely illegal. It's the latest in a series of court rulings targeting Trump and his sweeping changes to the federal government, which he has spearheaded with the help of "cut-rate czar" Elon Musk. Here's what the 47th president has lost and won Forbes.

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Plaintiffs including Democratic attorneys general, federal employees, labor unions, nonprofits and other groups have filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration in the weeks since his inauguration. Republican control of the White House and Congress has made litigation a primary way for Democrats to challenge Trump’s policies.

All of the cases remain pending in the courts, and none have yet reached final decisions. However, several temporary orders have been issued that either block the measures while the litigation continues or allow various orders to remain in place until a final decision is made.

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The legal landscape remains fluid: Judges who have previously ruled in favor of the Trump administration could subsequently block its measures, and vice versa. Decisions both in favor of and against the government are likely to be appealed to higher courts.

Where Trump Won in Court

• CIA officers: CIA Director John Ratcliffe can fire employees who held diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, Judge Anthony Trenga ruled at a hearing Feb. 27 after the employees filed a lawsuit seeking to block their firings. The judge said he believed as a matter of “fundamental fairness” the employees should not have been fired, but Ratcliffe had the legal authority to fire them.
• Foreign aid: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily stayed lower-court Judge Amir Ali’s ruling requiring the Trump administration to release foreign aid money for work already done, hours before Ali’s midnight Feb. 26 deadline. Roberts’s ruling is temporary and does not address the substance of the case, but it marks the first time the Supreme Court has ruled in Trump’s favor since he returned to office last month. It is a boon to Trump’s push to shrink the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
• USAID staff: Trump-appointed Judge Carl Nichols ruled Friday, Feb. 21, that the Trump administration can place USAID employees on furlough, reversing his previous ruling against the government after the administration filed a motion assuring that furloughed employees would continue to receive government benefits.
• Associated Press: Judge Trevor McFadden has allowed the Trump administration to continue to bar Associated Press reporters from major White House events (at least for now). He denied the AP's request to restore its reporters' access after the Trump administration punished the agency for using the name "Gulf of Mexico" after Trump ordered it renamed the Gulf of America.
• Elon Musk's powers: Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected efforts by Democratic attorneys general to block Musk and DOGE from accessing federal data or limiting their ability to make personnel decisions, though she expressed concerns about Musk's authority in a Feb. 18 ruling and suggested she might rule against him in the future.
• DOGE Access to Department of Labor Data: Judge John Bates twice rejected the unions’ request to block DOGE’s access to Labor Department data, at least while the lawsuit continues. The judge first ruled that the plaintiffs lacked a valid case to sue, and then on Feb. 14, he ruled that the plaintiffs had not provided sufficient evidence to support their claims, though he acknowledged “serious privacy concerns raised in this case.”
• Decrease in federal workforce: Judge George O'Toole has allowed the deadline for federal workers to accept a severance package offer to expire, ruling Feb. 12 that unions challenging the severance plan have no standing to sue after previously extending the deadline several times.
• Emails to Federal Employees: Judge Randolph Daniel Moss rejected an attempt by federal employees to stop the government from sending mass emails to employees through an allegedly insecure email server, ruling Feb. 17 that the plaintiffs were unlikely to prove they had probable cause to sue.

Where Trump Lost in Court

• Dismissal of employees during the probationary period: Judge William Alsup on Feb. 27 ordered the Office of Personnel Management to temporarily halt a memo that encourages agencies like the Defense Department to fire scores of newly hired probationary employees. Alsup reportedly argued at the hearing that the Office of Personnel Management’s actions, part of a broader downsizing strategy, were likely illegal, arguing that the agency “has no authority under any law in the history of the universe to hire or fire employees at other agencies.” The Trump administration has argued that the agency was merely asking agencies to review their probationary hiring.
• Other dismissals: While several lawsuits challenging the mass layoffs remain pending, individual workers like Katie Harris, a member of the Meritocratic Defense Council, and Hampton Dellinger of the Special Council have won court orders barring their termination while the lawsuits are pending. Dellinger’s case was the first to reach the Supreme Court, which by a 7-2 majority refused to overturn the court order temporarily keeping him on the job.
• Reception of refugees: Judge Jamal Whitehead blocked Trump's order suspending refugee admissions on Feb. 25 after hearing a lawsuit filed by refugee charities. He ruled that Trump's order effectively nullified the will of Congress because Congress created the refugee program.
• DOGE access to student loan data: A federal court in Maryland on Feb. 24 blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Office of Personnel Management and Department of Education data, including student loan data, while a lawsuit by the American Federation of Teachers and Federal Employees continues. That came despite another district court earlier denying a group of University of California students' request to block DOGE's access to the data.
• DOGE Access to Department of the Treasury Data: DOGE was barred from accessing Treasury Department data during the trial. Judge Janet Vargas blocked access to the data in response to a lawsuit filed by Democratic attorneys general. The ruling followed another federal judge's ruling that granted two DOGE employees "read-only" access.
• Citizenship by birth: Four federal district judges have blocked Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented or undocumented immigrants. In addition, on February 19, a panel of judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Trump’s emergency request to overturn one of those decisions, meaning the order will remain blocked pending litigation.
• Freezing funding: Two federal judges have blocked a controversial Trump administration order to suspend nearly all federal grants. On Feb. 10, Judge John McConnell upheld his earlier ruling and ordered the government to restore funding after groups suing said the Trump administration failed to release funds as the court ordered.
• DEI: In response to the Trump administration's sweeping efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, federal judges have blocked the government's efforts to strip "equity-related" federal grants and fire civilian employees working on DEI at federal intelligence agencies, at least pending the cases.
• Transgender rights: The Trump administration’s sweeping restrictions on transgender people have been blocked in part by the courts. Several judges have ruled to prevent the Trump administration from holding transgender women in men’s prisons, and a federal judge on Feb. 16 temporarily blocked a ban on gender-affirmative health care for minors.
• National Institutes of Health Funding: On Feb. 10, Judge Angel Kelly blocked changes to the NIH that would have imposed a flat 15% reimbursement rate on some medical research that had previously been negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Health organizations and hospitals said the change violated federal due process.
• Medical sites: On February 11, Judge Bates ruled that the Trump administration must restore government health websites that were removed after Trump’s inauguration. The court issued the ruling in response to a lawsuit by Doctors for America, which alleged that the removal of the information violated federal law and harmed its members.

What other lawsuits are still pending?

• Immigration: Cases pending in court include the suspension of refugee admissions, restrictions on asylum, raids on “sanctuary cities,” defunding of “sanctuary cities,” immigration agents entering places of worship, restrictions on grants to immigration advocacy organizations, expedited removal of immigrants, and the shutdown of the CBP One app used by asylum seekers.
• DOGE: Several lawsuits remain pending challenging Trump’s authority to create DOGE. Various groups are seeking to block Musk and his associates from accessing records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Office of Personnel Management, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Social Security Administration. The liberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit alleging that DOGE “does not provide any transparency in its operations” and is seeking to compel DOGE to provide requested federal documents and restore any lost or destroyed records.
• Federal employees: The Trump administration and DOGE’s massive layoffs of federal employees have led to a number of lawsuits, including one challenging the mass layoffs and Trump’s firing of inspectors general. Gwynne Wilcox, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board, has also filed a lawsuit challenging her firing. Several lawsuits challenge Trump’s Schedule F executive order, which makes it easier to fire career government employees. A lawsuit against the Justice Department alleging retaliation against officials involved in the Jan. 6 investigations remains pending. However, a court has barred the government from releasing lists of the names of FBI agents involved in those investigations while the case is ongoing. Unions already suing the Trump administration over the mass layoffs filed an amended lawsuit on Feb. 24 to challenge Musk’s letter to federal employees demanding they report on their work over the past week or face termination. The unions argue that the Office of Personnel Management's request for employees to respond to the letter or be fired does not comply with established government procedures.
• Transgender rights: Lawsuits are still pending challenging a number of the Trump administration's restrictions on transgender rights, including a ban on transgender athletes in women's sports, a requirement that passports list biological sex, and a reinstated ban on transgender people serving in the military.
• Federal funding: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration to recover lost funds after a freeze on federal funding allegedly caused Pennsylvania to lose funding even after courts ordered the funds to be released. New York City also sued the Trump administration to get federal money back after the federal government allegedly canceled $80 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds already allocated to the city.
• Changing of the climate: Environmental groups have sued the Trump administration over his executive order allowing parts of the U.S. outer continental shelf to be used for oil and gas drilling, overruling the 46th President, Joe Biden. They argue that Trump has overstepped his authority. Environmental and farming groups also filed a lawsuit on Feb. 24 against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, arguing that they were harmed by the government's decision to remove information about climate change from government websites.
• Congestion Charge: The Metropolitan Transit Authority has asked a federal court to invalidate Trump's order that ordered the city to end its congestion pricing program, which charges vehicles a daily fee to travel through more congested areas of Manhattan. The city argues that Trump cannot unilaterally end the program.

Is Trump Complying With Court Orders?

So far, yes. Although legal experts raised alarms after Vice President J.D. Vance suggested in February that judges “cannot police the legitimate powers of the executive branch,” there is no indication yet that the Trump administration has intentionally disregarded the rulings against it, and the administration has taken pains in court filings to say it is complying with the court’s orders.

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What other claims can be filed?

Many of Trump’s policies have not yet ended in litigation, but they could in the future. Among the Trump administration’s actions that have not yet been challenged in court are the withdrawal from the World Health Organization, the imposition of tariffs on Chinese goods, the rollback of artificial intelligence protections, and Biden-era climate change initiatives.

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