Elon Musk, then-White House Senior Advisor and director of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, is seen in a March 2025 photo walking to the White House after landing in Marine One on the South Lawn with President Donald Trump. (Samuel Corum / Getty Images)
By Nick Givas October 13, 2026 at 1:24pm
The Supreme Court granted a Trump administration request Tuesday to examine lower court rulings regarding record requests related to the Department of Government Efficiency.
A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibilities and Ethics, is seeking information about how much power DOGE had over federal spending cuts and its general authority over federal agencies, Politico reported.
Trump officials are arguing that DOGE acted in an advisory capacity and did not make the final call on spending cuts, firings, or any other major changes.
If the high court rejects that premise, DOGE could be forced to hand over its records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Solicitor General John Sauer filed an emergency appeal to the justices last year, asking them to block the discovery that lower courts approved.
In an unsigned order, the Supreme Court said that the lower-court rulings were “not appropriately tailored” and that courts must show “deference and restraint” when dealing with the executive branch.
The three liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
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The watchdog group then scaled back its records request, and the process was allowed to move forward. Sauer went back to the high court in March, arguing that the lower courts had sidestepped their previous ruling.
“The lower courts’ approach also defeats FOIA’s objective of protecting the separation of powers,” Justice Department lawyers wrote. “Subjecting advisory bodies to intrusive discovery triggers the very concerns that Congress sought to avoid by excluding presidential advisory bodies from FOIA’s reach.”
CREW’s chief counsel Nikhel Sus, on the other hand, said lower courts have consistently ruled that the organization has a right to examine DOGE’s records to find out how much authority it was granted.
“The lower courts have uniformly ruled that CREW is entitled to discovery in this case to help the court determine whether DOGE wields the type of authority that would make it subject to FOIA,” he declared.
“We will continue to pursue transparency for the American people, who deserve to know the details of the Trump Administration’s efforts to unilaterally remake the federal government,” Sus concluded.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk led DOGE when it was first formed at the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term, serving as a Special Government Employee and Senior Advisor to the commander in chief.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek, however, that DOGE was more of a “one-off” and has since “fizzled out.”
“I don’t think it’ll have broad implications in terms of discovery requests to federal agencies because those agencies are authorized by Congress,” he explained. “They receive funds. The heads of those agencies — they make decisions, so I really think this is more of a one-off.”
The case will likely be argued before the Supreme Court some time next year.
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Nick Givas has been a reporter for The Daily Caller, Fox News, and served as Managing Editor of the Newsroom at Project Veritas. He’s also hosted three different podcasts, served as a Congressional Communications Director, and had his work featured in The Federalist, Daily Signal, New York Post, and Real Clear Politics.
