WASHINGTON — A federal judge declined Tuesday to immediately block billionaire Elon Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing government data systems or participating in worker layoffs.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that there are legitimate questions about Musk's authority, but said there isn't evidence of the kind of grave legal harm that would justify a temporary restraining order.

The decision came in a lawsuit filed by 14 states challenging DOGE's authority to access sensitive government data. The attorneys general argued that actions taken by Musk at the helm of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency can only be taken by a nominated and Senate-confirmed official under the Constitution.

The Trump administration has maintained that Musk doesn't have authority of his own and layoffs are coming from agency heads.

Musk's team has tapped into computer systems across multiple agencies with the blessing of President Donald Trump, digging into budgets and searching for what he calls waste, fraud and abuse, even as a growing number of lawsuits allege DOGE is violating the law.