CNN
—
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to step into a fight over whether the Department of Government Efficiency must turn over public documents – like other government agencies – or whether it is shielded from such requests because it is part of the White House.
The case raises fundamental questions about the power and transparency of an entity that has slashed agency budgets and government employees with unusual speed and that has inspired a wave of federal lawsuits against the Trump administration.
The emergency appeal, one of more than a dozen to reach the high court involving President Donald Trump since he began his second term, requests that the justices halt a lower court order that would allow a government watchdog group to depose DOGE staff to better understand the entity’s role within the federal government as they argue it should be covered under the transparency law known as the Freedom of Information Act.
In the appeal, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer described DOGE as a “presidential advisory body” within the White House that is tasked “with providing recommendations” to Trump. Given those advisory functions, Sauer wrote, DOGE is exempt from FOIA requirements.
“Nullifying FOIA’s solicitude for presidential advisors and ordering roving discovery into their recommendations and advice represents an untenable affront to the separation of powers,” Sauer told the Supreme Court.
Requiring deposition of the entity’s leadership, Sauer argued, “will significantly distract from (DOGE’s) mission of identifying and eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government.”
A federal judge ruled in March that DOGE is likely covered by FOIA, which allows the public, interest groups and the media to obtain internal government records detailing agency conduct.
After several months leading DOGE, Elon Musk has said he is taking a step back from full-time government work so can he focus more attention on his companies.
US District Judge Casey Cooper is now taking a closer look at that question, and has okayed discovery being sought by the challengers – the left-leaning watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington – including a deposition of DOGE acting administrator Amy Gleason. A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, declined last week to reverse the discovery decision by Cooper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.
This is the second major case involving DOGE to reach the Supreme Court in recent weeks.
The justices are already considering a case involving whether the entity should be allowed to access Social Security Administration records on millions of Americans.
