Supreme Court Again Sides with Secrecy, Undermines Transparency in DOGE Decision

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order further shielding the controversial operations of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, and the Trump administration from public scrutiny. The decision blocks a lower court’s order granting Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) limited discovery into whether DOGE — a powerful, secretive entity created by President Trump and led, until recently, by Musk — is subject to basic transparency requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In its ruling, the Supreme Court found that portions of the district court’s ruling were “not appropriately tailored” and emphasized that “separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal Executive Branch communications.” The Court ordered the case to be returned to the appeals court with instructions to narrow the district court’s ruling accordingly.

“President Trump continues to use the Supreme Court as a shield — protecting DOGE from accountability and hindering the public’s right to know,” said American Oversight Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “The Court didn’t dispute that DOGE may be violating transparency laws — it merely objected to how the lower court was trying to uncover the truth. That’s cold comfort to a country still in the dark about how a shadowy entity used taxpayers dollars to fire civil servants, meddle in foreign policy, and access sensitive government systems behind closed doors. Today’s ruling only entrenches that secrecy and makes it even harder to timely bring the extent of DOGE’s troubling actions into the light.”

Today’s ruling neither exempts DOGE from FOIA nor forecloses the possibility of future discovery. But by overturning the discovery order and sending the case back to the D.C. Circuit for further narrowing, the Supreme Court has made clear that any inquiry into DOGE’s status will face an uphill battle — one complicated by judicial deference to an executive branch that has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid transparency and accountability.

Late last month, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s application for a stay of the district court’s order granting CREW limited discovery against DOGE and Musk. American Oversight filed an amicus brief opposing the stay. The brief included previously undisclosed records obtained by the nonprofit watchdog that undermine the government’s claims.

The administration’s application for stay followed a March ruling in which a federal district judge found that DOGE is “likely subject to FOIA” and authorized CREW to obtain more information before a final determination is made, and an unsuccessful attempt to secure intervention from the D.C. Circuit.

Background 

American Oversight’s brief argued that, in order to decide whether DOGE is definitively a “federal agency” under FOIA, a court must take a close look at how DOGE actually operates — something that cannot be resolved without factual discovery. The watchdog further argued that attempts to block this basic transparency risk undermining not only CREW’s case but American Oversight’s own ongoing litigation against DOGE, in which the watchdog is seeking critical information about how DOGE is influencing federal policy behind closed doors.

In April, Elon Musk proclaimed DOGE to be the “the most transparent organization in government ever.” Soon after, American Oversight filed another lawsuit against DOGE and several Trump administration officials to uncover the truth about DOGE’s influence over federal decision-making and ensure that government operations — especially those wielding power to fire employees and halt payments — are subject to public scrutiny.

For more information on American Oversight’s investigation into DOGE, click here.