WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear the Trump administration’s appeal in a Freedom of Information Act case over the U.S. DOGE Service, the second time the justices have taken up the same dispute. The court’s docket in No. 25-1103 records the grant on Oct. 13.
The case does not ask the justices to decide whether DOGE’s records must be released. It asks whether a lower court may order discovery, including a deposition of the office’s administrator, to find out whether FOIA covers the office at all. The underlying request, filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington four days after the office was created in January 2025, still had not been processed as of CREW’s June filing.
Two questions, both about discovery
The government’s petition, filed March 18 by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, presents two questions. The first is whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit departed from the Supreme Court’s 2025 instructions and from Cheney v. United States District Court, the 2004 decision limiting discovery against senior executive officials. The second is whether a court may order broad discovery against an advisory body in the Executive Office of the President “to determine whether FOIA’s disclosure requirements apply in the first place.”
The petition calls the district court’s order “wide-ranging and intrusive.” CREW’s brief in opposition, filed June 22, calls it “modest discovery” ordered to settle factual disputes the government itself raised. CREW framed the first question differently, as whether the appeals court abused its discretion in denying mandamus, which its brief calls an extraordinary remedy.
The petition offered the court a shorter route. It asked the justices either to grant full review of both questions or to summarily reverse on the separation-of-powers question alone. The court chose full review.
FOIA covers the Executive Office, with an exception
FOIA’s definition of “agency” has expressly included the Executive Office of the President since a 1974 amendment. In Kissinger v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (1980), the Supreme Court held that the definition does not reach units whose sole function is to advise and assist the president. Courts since then have asked whether an Executive Office unit exercises “substantial independent authority” beyond advising.
The government says the U.S. DOGE Service, created by Executive Order 14158 on Jan. 20, 2025, is advisory. The order renamed the existing U.S. Digital Service, placed it in the Executive Office of the President and set up the agency-level DOGE Teams. CREW says the office ran DOGE’s work across the government and points to the order’s own text, which established the department “to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda.”
Sixteen months in the courts
The dispute has moved between three courts since early 2025. All dates below come from the filings in No. 25-1103.
| Date | Court | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| March 10, 2025 | District court | Judge Christopher Cooper finds the office likely subject to FOIA and orders the request processed on an expedited basis, without setting a deadline. |
| April 15, 2025 | District court | Cooper orders limited discovery, including a deposition of acting administrator Amy Gleason, after the government relies on her declarations. |
| May 14, 2025 | D.C. Circuit | A panel denies the government’s mandamus petition. |
| June 6, 2025 | Supreme Court | The court grants a stay, vacates the D.C. Circuit order and sends the case back to narrow discovery. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson would have denied the application. |
| July 14, 2025 | D.C. Circuit | Judges Henderson, Wilkins and Childs strike the requests CREW withdrew on remand and deny mandamus on the rest. |
| Dec. 18, 2025 | D.C. Circuit | Rehearing denied. |
| Oct. 13, 2026 | Supreme Court | Certiorari granted. |
The June 2025 order said the parts of the discovery order seeking the content of internal DOGE recommendations, and whether agencies followed them, were “not appropriately tailored.” It said FOIA coverage “cannot turn on the entity’s ability to persuade,” and that separation-of-powers concerns “counsel judicial deference and restraint” in discovery into internal executive communications.
On remand, CREW withdrew two interrogatories and five requests for admission aimed at those recommendations. The government argued that the order required the lower courts to reassess every remaining request. The D.C. Circuit held that dropping the withdrawn items was enough. Still pending are requests for the office’s directives to its staff and to agencies, its plans to access a classified agency database, staffing details for DOGE employees and agency teams, and the Gleason deposition.
The temporary organization has already expired
Executive Order 14158 also created a “U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization” inside the office and set it to terminate on July 4, 2026. The order states that the termination does not end any other provision. The U.S. DOGE Service itself remains a party to the case.
CREW’s brief argued the timing cuts against review. When the court first acted in mid-2025, the government warned that scrutiny could hamper the new administration’s “high-priority policy initiatives.” CREW now describes the discovery as “a targeted backward-looking inquiry into DOGE’s past operations.” It also noted that other courts have ordered discovery about DOGE without the government seeking appellate review.
Under the June 2025 order, the stay on Cooper’s discovery orders remains in place until the Supreme Court sends down its judgment. The docket does not yet list an argument date. Read the Supreme Court docket for No. 25-1103, the government’s petition and CREW’s brief in opposition.
Filed under: Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. DOGE Service
Sources
- Supreme Court of the United States, docket No. 25-1103, U.S. DOGE Service v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Used for: the Oct. 13 grant, filing dates, counsel, lower court dates.
- Supreme Court, questions presented, No. 25-1103. Used for: the two questions.
- Petition for a writ of certiorari (March 18, 2026), with appendix. Used for: the government’s arguments, the legal background, the June 6, 2025 order, the July 14, 2025 D.C. Circuit order, the remaining discovery requests.
- CREW, brief in opposition (June 22, 2026). Used for: CREW’s framing, the March 2025 rulings, the temporary organization, the equities argument.
- Executive Order 14158, 90 Fed. Reg. 8441 (Jan. 29, 2025). Used for: the office’s creation, the renaming, DOGE Teams, the July 4, 2026 termination.
- FedScoop (Oct. 13, 2026). Used for: the grant and case background.