WASHINGTON: The United States Supreme Court announced on Tuesday it will review an appeal by the administration of Donald Trump to restrict access to records of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The now-defunct agency was launched in 2025 and headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk with the task of cutting government spending, leading to the dismissal of thousands of federal employees and slashing millions in foreign aid.
DOGE was highly active during the first 100 days of Trump's second term, but significantly pulled back after Musk had a public falling out with the president in May 2025, and completely shut down by July 4 this year.
An NGO called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the initial lawsuit, requesting government records from DOGE under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which requires federal agencies to provide documents to any member of the public who requests them.
The Trump administration maintains DOGE was not a formal government agency and was thus not required to respond to FOIA requests.
The US Supreme Court had previously paused a lower court decision that ruled in favour of CREW, sending the case back to lower courts for more litigation on which records DOGE was required to hand over.
The six conservative justices on the bench siding against the three liberal ones.
Now the issue returns to the Supreme Court's docket this term, which ends in late June.
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