WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block court orders requiring Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency to turn over documents about its operations to a government watchdog group.
The Justice Department’s latest emergency appeal to the high court concerns whether DOGE, which has been central to President Donald Trump’s push to remake the government, is a federal agency that is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The administration argues DOGE is merely a presidential advisory body that is exempt from requests for documents under FOIA.
The administration wants the justices to freeze orders that would force DOGE to turn over documents to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and have acting DOGE administrator Amy Gleason answer questions under oath within the next three weeks. CREW sued in February, claiming that DOGE “wields shockingly broad power” with no transparency about its actions.
In March, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper found that DOGE’s role is likely more than just advisory, noting its claims in helping to shutter USAID and cut billions of dollars in government contracts. “Canceling any government contract would seem to require substantial authority — and canceling them on this scale certainly does,” Cooper wrote. DOGE “likely has at least some independent authority to identify and terminate federal employees, federal programs, and federal contracts.”
A panel of the federal appeals court in Washington initially put Cooper’s order on hold, but a different panel later reinstated the order. Cooper has since set deadlines for the administration to comply by June 13.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer urged the justices to act quickly, calling Cooper’s orders “extraordinarily overbroad and intrusive.”
The case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals has taken to the Supreme Court after lower courts have blocked parts of Trump’s agenda.