A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s takeover of the US Institute of Peace (USIP)—a nonpartisan nonprofit organization created by Congress in 1984, under President Ronald Reagan, to prevent and help resolve international conflicts—was illegal. The ruling marks an important victory for nonprofit independence and a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to impose its ideological agenda on the nonprofit sector and control specific organizations, especially those receiving federal funds.
In the opinion for the May 19 ruling, US District Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, DC, strongly rebuked Trump’s conduct, stating:
The President’s efforts here to take over an organization…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.
“The decision is significant beyond the confines of this case, and indeed to the larger nonprofit sector, because it represents the court standing up for nonprofits and separation of powers,” said Geoff Green, CEO of CalNonprofits, an advocacy group that has been helping nonprofits in California navigate the current political climate. “That’s the argument we make: for everybody to push back.” The strategy, Green says, “tends to work,” and “the vast majority of court cases have landed in our favor thus far.”
The Takeover of USIP
“The President’s efforts…represented a gross usurpation of power.”In a February executive order, President Trump targeted USIP to be effectively shut down, triggering a rapid and forceful takeover. After Trump removed the nonprofit’s appointed board members, the remaining ex officio board members replaced USIP acting president George Moose with a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer.
DOGE officials and armed law enforcement, “then used brute force and threats of criminal process to take over USIP’s headquarters,” the judge’s opinion stated. In the days that followed, DOGE fired nearly all of USIP’s staff, took over its computer systems and other resources, erased its website, seized its endowment, and transferred its privately owned building and other assets to the General Services Administration, which manages the government’s buildings and real estate.
The Nature of the Nonprofit
Among the legal questions central to the judge’s ruling was whether USIP’s relationship to the federal government—including the fact that it receives Congressionally appropriated funds and awards grants with those funds—gave President Trump and his administration the legal right to take these actions.
USIP’s attorneys argued the institute, created by Congress as a nonprofit, is “entirely independent” from, and not part of, the federal government, as Howell wrote in the opinion. Trump administration lawyers claimed USIP is part of the executive branch and under direct presidential control for several reasons, including that the institute receives appropriated funds and issues grants with those funds.
Speaking with NPQ, George Foote, outside counsel for USIP, warned the administration’s legal argument was not just flawed—it is also dangerous. According to Foote, under that “crackpot theory,” any nonprofit that gets federal money and makes grants could be considered under executive authority. Foote added, “It’s a very expansive view of what the president can do. It should be considered a threat to nonprofit organizations that have any connection to the government.”
In the 102-page opinion, Howell acknowledged that USIP is a private independent nonprofit “unique in its structure and function,” due to its unusual relationship to the federal government. However, it “does not exercise governmental, let alone executive, power under the Constitution and is not part of the Executive branch.”
The judge’s conclusion was unequivocal: “USIP’s existence outside of the Executive branch is the end of the inquiry,” and President Trump, Howell ruled, lacked the constitutional authority to remove USIP’s appointed board members without cause and had therefore violated federal law.
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“The unlawfulness of the President’s removal decisions also renders unlawful all of the actions that flowed from that,” Howell wrote.
Court Invalidates Takeover
Because the remaining board was not “legitimately constituted” after Trump’s removals, all its subsequent actions, such as appointing new USIP presidents, were unlawful and invalid. Further, all actions taken or authorized by those illegitimate leaders, including transferring USIP’s building and endowment, are, according to the ruling, “null, void, and without legal effect.”
DOGE officials and armed law enforcement, “then used brute force and threats of criminal process to take over USIP’s headquarters.”
Since USIP’s board members and president were not lawfully removed, they don’t need to be reinstated and “may not be treated in any way as having been removed, or otherwise obstructed from carrying out their duties,” the ruling states.
Those involved in the Trump administration’s takeover are “enjoined from further trespass” on USIP property or attempting to control its offices, assets, computers, or records. They are also barred from using the institute’s name or logo, or acting on its behalf in any way. Ex officio board members cannot transfer any USIP assets without the approval of a majority of the legitimate board.
The Trump administration may still appeal the ruling.
The impact on USIP meanwhile, has clearly been devastation. Trump’s takeover left only a skeleton crew in place and ended all USIP operations. A Washington, DC, phone number for the organization was answered by someone who identified themself only as “Command Center,” and who, when NPQ asked to speak to a media representative, replied simply that “they’re all gone.”
Executive Power Has Limits
The ruling establishes that ties to federal funding or the federal government itself do not put USIP under the president’s control.
“USIP’s existence outside of the Executive branch is the end of the inquiry.”
When rejecting the administration’s sweeping claims of executive authority, Judge Howell underscored a broader principle: “The public surely has an interest in government officials following the law,” she wrote in her opinion, including protecting independent organizations like USIP from “the political whims of a given president.”
Green of CalNonprofits emphasized it is important that “the courts overwhelmingly are holding the line against these attacks” by the Trump administration. He said the courts are “respecting and reinforcing laws that protect civic life and infrastructure” and that “nonprofits are being appropriately treated as private, independent organizations with the freedom to do many things—regardless of what the government thinks of them.”
