U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the temporary suspension of discovery in a case against the Department of Government Efficiency about requests for information from government agencies.
The lawsuit from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington argues that the DOGE’s “secretive operations” should be subject to public review through the Freedom of Information Act. The government said that a lower district judge ordered “sweeping, intrusive” discovery to determine whether it was subject to FOIA.
‘That order turns FOIA on its head, effectively giving respondent a win on the merits of its FOIA suit under the guise of figuring out whether FOIA even applies.’
At the heart of the debate is the contention that the DOGE is not a government agency but is in fact a “presidential advisory body” housed within the Executive Office of the President according to government attorneys.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the DOGE is not an agency and therefore not subject to information requests.
“That order turns FOIA on its head, effectively giving respondent a win on the merits of its FOIA suit under the guise of figuring out whether FOIA even applies,” Sauer argued.
CREW lawyer Nikhel Sus argued that the emergency request was basically arguing the case on its merits.
“At issue here is a far narrower antecedent question: whether the court of appeals clearly and indisputably erred in refusing to disturb a district court order allowing limited discovery to ascertain DOGE’s agency status,” Sus wrote in a brief to the court.
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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
The issue may be taken up by the entire court if Roberts chooses to refer it.
Trump tasked tech billionaire Elon Musk with heading up the DOGE to root out government waste, fraud, and abuse. Musk has said he is lessening his focus on the DOGE and returning to running his companies after a flurry of incidents including violence and vandalism against Tesla.
Critics have accused Musk of using the DOGE to shut down agencies that were investigating his companies in order to avoid expensive lawsuits and to profit from his position at the Trump administration.
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