Key takeaways:
- CREW sued after the administration declined to process its early 2025 FOIA request for DOGE records.
- The Supreme Court previously blocked disclosure of executive-branch recommendations and whether they were followed; an appeals court later allowed CREW’s narrowed requests to proceed.
- The administration says DOGE is a presidential advisory body outside FOIA, while a district judge ruled it was likely covered.
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear the Trump administration’s effort to stop a watchdog group from gathering information about the Department of Government Efficiency, extending a legal fight over whether the cost-cutting operation is subject to federal public records law.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, sought records under the Freedom of Information Act soon after President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. Its request included DOGE’s organizational chart and financial disclosures. The administration declined to process it, arguing that DOGE is a presidential advisory body housed within the Executive Office of the President, not an agency covered by FOIA.
CREW sued, seeking a ruling that DOGE must respond. The dispute now before the justices concerns what information the group can obtain while courts consider DOGE’s status. CBS News reported that arguments are likely in early 2027, with a decision by that summer. NBC News said a ruling is due by the end of June.
In March 2025, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that DOGE was “likely” covered by FOIA. He said “the public would be irreparably harmed by an indefinite delay in unearthing the records CREW seeks,” according to NBC News. He allowed limited fact-finding about DOGE’s structure and authority, including a deposition of its administrator, Amy Gleason.
The administration challenged that order. In a 6-3 provisional decision, the Supreme Court blocked parts of it, including demands to disclose the content of recommendations made within the executive branch and whether those recommendations were followed. The ruling also prevented Gleason’s deposition at that stage, NBC News reported. The justices directed the lower courts to narrow the order, saying, “Separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal executive branch communications.”
CREW then narrowed what it sought. According to CBS News, the remaining requests concern DOGE’s structure, its directives to cancel federal contracts and fire government workers, and examples of it exercising substantial independent authority, such as gaining access to sensitive systems. The group says it is not seeking White House communications that may be exempt from FOIA, NBC News reported.
A federal appeals court allowed the narrowed fact-finding to proceed, prompting the administration’s latest appeal. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that CREW could obtain much of the information it originally requested before a court decides whether DOGE is covered by FOIA. He warned that the ruling “intrudes into the autonomy and confidentiality of presidential advisors” and could lead to burdensome litigation. NBC News reported that the information requests remain on hold while the case proceeds.
Trump created DOGE early in his second term to cut federal spending. Led by billionaire Elon Musk, who left DOGE in May 2025, it placed personnel across federal agencies and played a central role in workforce cuts, contract cancellations and the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. CBS News reported that DOGE also sought access to sensitive databases at the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration and Office of Personnel Management.
CBS News cited a Government Accountability Office analysis finding that the administration spent $9.5 billion on employee administrative leave in 2025, six times the 2023 amount. The GAO attributed $6.7 billion of that total to employees who accepted a buyout offer tied to the workforce-reduction initiative.
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