The Justice Department wants to stop the group from getting those records under the Freedom of Information Act. A ruling is due by the end of June. The administration argues that DOGE, spearheaded by former adviser Elon Musk, is not subject to FOIA requests.
The justices have seen this case before. In an earlier provisional decision, they blocked parts of a lower court ruling that required thousands of pages of information to be handed over. That decision also meant plaintiffs' lawyers could not depose Amy Gleason, the DOGE administrator.
The fight kept going. The plaintiffs narrowed their requests, but the government still objected. After lower courts ruled against it, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the Supreme Court to step in again.
For now, the information requests stay on hold. The plaintiffs say they still want DOGE guidance to its workers on canceling contracts and firing government workers. They say none of it involves White House communications that may be off-limits under FOIA. DOGE played a key role in firing thousands of federal workers, canceling government funding and dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, and its operations have since dwindled.
The whole case may hinge on one basic question. Is DOGE technically a government agency at all?