In less than 30 minutes on Monday, Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency were hit with three different lawsuits over the legal status of the effort to find federal regulations to eliminate and federal employees to fire.

The lawsuits landed as Musk rubbed elbows with fellow billionaires at President Donald Trump’s inauguration. As Trump crowed during his speech about DOGE and sending astronauts to Mars, government watchdogs and civil society organizations filed litigation claiming DOGE violates federal law because of its structure and secrecy.

“Currently, DOGE is operating unchecked, without authorization or funding from Congress and is led by unelected billionaires who are not representative of ordinary Americans,” said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a statement announcing one of the lawsuits, which it filed alongside the........

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