Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump administration to shield DOGE documents

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed the Trump administration to shield Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from freedom of information requests seeking thousands of pages of material.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed the Trump administration to shield Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from freedom of information requests seeking thousands of pages of material.

Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay that puts lower court decisions on hold while the Supreme Court considers what next steps to take.

For now, it means the government will not have to respond to requests for documents and allow for the deposition of the DOGE administrator, Amy Gleason, as a lower court had ruled.

At issue in the ongoing litigation is whether DOGE, which has played a key role in firing government workers and cutting federal grants and spending, is technically a government agency and therefore subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which allows members of the public to seek internal documents.

The Trump administration says that, despite its name, DOGE is merely a presidential advisory body that is not subject to public records requests under FOIA.