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Believe it or not, it’s been over a year since Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency tore through the U.S. government, infamously shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development while falsely claiming it had saved America $52.8 billion. Throughout its 10-month run, DOGE was dodging a Freedom of Information Act request from a public interest group, which eventually led to a lawsuit that sought to force the agency to hand over internal records that would reveal how it was making decisions. The dispute has been simmering for over a year now, ping-ponging between lower courts, appeals court panels, and the Supreme Court as the Trump administration has been pushing to protect DOGE from any public disclosures. But now, this fight might finally be coming to an end, as the Supreme Court agreed this week to consider the case, for a second time—the first time, SCOTUS sided with the Trump administration by forcing a lower court to reevaluate its order forcing it to hand over DOGE’s records—and Its decision stands to impact what responsibility all federal agencies have to the public—if any.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in U.S. DOGE Service v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where the justices will weigh in on whether DOGE should be classified as a federal agency, and therefore subject to FOIA requests—a federal mandate that gives any person the right to access records from federal executive branch agencies. The Trump administration has been insisting for the past year that DOGE was not a federal agency, but a presidential advisory body, and therefore not subject to FOIA. However, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the watchdog group suing, is calling foul, noting that DOGE was given taxpayer dollars to the tune of $41 million to fund its operations. DOGE also incorrectly sought to apply the Cheney standard—a 2004 case that shielded the executive branch from complying with public records requests—in order to maintain autonomy of its office and safeguard confidentiality of its communications, the lawsuit argues.

This case will be critical in holding DOGE accountable for not just the utter destruction it caused within the U.S. government, but in setting a clear precedent for how U.S.........

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