WASHINGTON — After months of lower-court fighting over its records, the Department of Government Efficiency dispute reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday, when the justices agreed to hear the Trump administration’s appeal in a disclosure case filed under federal disclosure law by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, according to Reuters.
The court hears arguments later in the term. Its ruling is expected by the end of June.
The question in front of the justices is narrower than the records fight itself. CREW is seeking documents and a sworn interview with a senior DOGE official. The group wants to show that DOGE wielded enough independent authority to count as an agency under the Freedom of Information Act, according to Bloomberg Law.
The administration says DOGE only advised the president, and that FOIA therefore does not reach it. A judge has said the records CREW wants are needed to test that claim. The answer depends on how much independent authority DOGE actually had, according to USA Today.
The justices have dealt with the case once before. In June 2025, a majority narrowed an earlier disclosure order. The majority cited separation-of-powers concerns and said courts should show deference and restraint before ordering the executive branch to turn over internal communications.
In the new appeal, the administration argued the revised order still goes too far. Solicitor General John Sauer warned in the petition about the effects of letting far-reaching discovery proceed.
“Allowing the decision below to stand and far-reaching discovery to proceed would sow mischief in countless future cases against high-ranking officials.”
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled in April 2025 that DOGE likely counts as an agency covered by FOIA, and he ordered disclosures. An appeals court panel later sided with CREW and refused to put his order on hold, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
Trump set up DOGE by executive order on his first day back in office in January 2025 and gave it an 18-month agenda. Elon Musk was its first public leader. It moved fast, cutting the federal workforce, dismantling agencies including the U.S. Agency for International Development, and canceling billions in contracts and other spending.
On July 4, 2025, DOGE announced that its formal mission had ended. The White House has said it no longer operates as a centralized entity.
DOGE said it cut tens of billions of dollars, a claim outside experts could not fully verify. The Government Accountability Office examined the reported savings in August and found that some were wrong and others lacked support. Some covered terminations already underway before DOGE existed. In other cases, leases were credited to DOGE that had been canceled earlier or were never terminated at all.
CREW says it wants to learn how DOGE was organized and how it was financed. The public, the group says, has a right to know how DOGE helped carry out a sweeping overhaul of government operations in 2025.
