Watchdog urges court not to grant DOGE’s request to pause FOIA order
The article was last updated at 3:43 pm on May 23, 2018. A government watchdog group urged the Supreme Court on Friday to deny the Trump Administration’s request to pause the order of a federal court in Washington, D.C., which would require the Department of Government Efficiency (DGE) to provide information to a lawsuit filed in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics lawyers in Washington told the Supreme Court that the government, under the pretense of wanting to halt the “narrowly tailored” order, was actually asking for the court to decide whether DOGE is a government entity subject to FOIA. This question, CREW claimed, was at the heart of the dispute. Chief Justice John Roberts issued an administrative stay on Friday afternoon to temporarily suspend Cooper’s order so that the court could consider DOGE’s request.
President Donald Trump established DOGE shortly after assuming office on January 20. It is not a cabinet department, but it has played a large role in the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce federal government size.
On January 24, CREW submitted a FOIA request for, amongst other things, communications between Amy Gleason the DOGE administrator and DOGE staff. CREW then went to the federal court in Washington to get documents it needed before Congress passed a funding bill for the federal government. CREW filed a lawsuit to speed up discovery, the process of exchanging data before trial, to determine if DOGE was an “agency”. Its requests included the names of current and former DOGE staff, a list containing the employees and positions that DOGE recommended termination for, and Gleason’s deposition. CREW was granted most of its discovery requests by U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper. This included the request to depose Gleason. The U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, rejected the government’s appeal to put Cooper’s orders on hold and halt the discovery process. Sauer told the court that forcing DOGE to respond to CREW’s discovery requests “clearly violates the separation of powers” and will “significantly distract” from DOGE’s mission to identify and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government. Sauer told the Supreme Court that forcing DOGE to respond CREW’s Discovery Requests “clearly violates separation of powers” as well as “significantly distracts” DOGE from its “mission to identify and eliminate fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption in the federal government.” It argued that the government was unlikely to win (an important factor when courts decide whether to grant temporary protection) because determining whether an entity is “agency” under FOIA requires a factual inquiry for which courts “previously supported limited discovery.” CREW argued that the government could raise all of its objections and privileges in the normal course discovery. The Trump administration can reply to CREW’s brief. The court can then act on the government request at any time.
Posted in Emergency appeals and applications, Featured
Cases: U.S. Doge Service v. Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
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Amy Howe
Watchdog urges the court to deny DOGE’s request to pause information in FOIA lawsuit.
SCOTUSblog
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