By Molly Claire Goddard
2:47am PDT, May 21, 2025
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One judicial authority is accusing
Donald Trump of overstepping.
In a 102-page
opinion published on Monday, May 19, Judge
Beryl Howell of the District of Columbia slammed the president for trying to dismantle the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) without the consent of Congress in a "gross usurpation of power" and ultimately voided the action.
Keep reading to learn what Howell said about Trump's bold move…MORE:
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In 1984, President
Ronald Reagan signed the bill that founded the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), which was established by
Congress as an "independent nonprofit corporation." The organization's goal was to be independent until Donald Trump recently tried to defund it.
In Beryl Howell's opinion, she points out how the USIP has received government funds "through appropriations bills signed by seven different Presidents from both major political parties, including the current President during his first term in office."
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However, with Donald Trump back in the Oval Office, Beryl Howell claims the Republican leader is causing "a drastic and abrupt change of course" with the USIP over his "rushed" executive order that was allegedly carried out with "blunt force, backed up by law enforcement" in order to "forcibly take over USIP headquarters in mid-March."
The attorney accused Trump and his administration of "hand[ing] off USIP's property for no consideration" to the General Services Administration (GSA) while "abruptly terminat[ing] nearly all of its staff and activities around the world."
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Beryl Howell also went on to accuse Donald Trump of violating the president's constitutional duties under Article II, Section 3 of the
Constitution by taking this action "without asking Congress to cease or reprogram appropriations or by recommending that Congress enact a new law to dissolve or reduce the Institute or transfer its tasks to another entity."
The judge stated that all of the ways the businessman and DOGE attempted to shut down USIP "were thus effectuated by illegitimately installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions, which must therefore be declared null and void."
"The Constitution makes clear that the President's constitutional authority only extends as far as Article II, but even Article II does not grant him absolute removal authority over his subordinates, under current binding caselaw precedent," the opinion noted. "Outside of Article II, he has little constitutional authority to act at all. The President's efforts here to take over an organization outside of those bounds, contrary to statute established by Congress and by acts of force and threat using local and federal law enforcement officers, represented a gross usurpation of power and a way of conducting government affairs that unnecessarily traumatized the committed leadership and employees of USIP, who deserved better."
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This is far from the first time a judge has called out Donald Trump for trying to over-exert his power. In an unsigned Friday, May 16, order, the
Supreme Court ruled the current commander-in-chief cannot use the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act to ship a group of alleged Venezuelan gang members out of America without a decision from a lower court.
"The Government has represented elsewhere that it is unable to provide for the return of an individual deported in error to a prison in El Salvador where it is alleged that detainees face indefinite detention," they stated. "The [Texas] detainees' interests at stake are accordingly particularly weighty. Under these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster."
