The U.S. Supreme Court intervened to protect the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from demands for transparency, temporarily suspending lower court rulings that mandated the agency to address freedom of information requests related to an ongoing lawsuit.

This action taken on Friday provides the agency, established by President Donald Trump via Executive Order 14158 on January 20, with additional time. This initiative is a proactive measure aimed at reducing waste and compelling oversized federal bureaucracies to justify their expenditures.

The executive order instructed the agency to “execute the President’s DOGE Agenda by modernizing Federal technology and software to enhance governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Chief Justice John Roberts has issued an administrative stay, which effectively halts the lower court orders while the Supreme Court deliberates on the next steps regarding the case. He did not provide any rationale for this action, prompting critics to question the continued lack of transparency, as reported by The Epoch Times.

The orders from the federal district court in Washington “are hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court,” Roberts stated in his latest order.

The case, U.S. DOGE Service v. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), revolves around claims that DOGE is functioning in secrecy while wielding what CREW characterizes as “unprecedented” authority over federal agencies. In the lawsuit, CREW contends that the public deserves to understand how this powerful entity is making significant decisions under what it refers to as a veil of “unusual secrecy.”

On May 21, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer submitted an emergency application to the Supreme Court, aiming to prevent the enforcement of lower court orders.

In his submission, Sauer contended that DOGE functions as an advisory entity within the executive branch rather than as a federal agency, and thus is “exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”

The Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, permits individuals “to obtain access to government information in executive branch agency records,” with certain exceptions.

According to a government website, “FOIA applies to records created by federal agencies and does not encompass records held by Congress, the courts, or state and local government agencies.”

Sauer pointed out in his submission that, despite DOGE’s classification as an advisory body, a lower district court mandated it “to submit to sweeping, intrusive discovery just to determine if USDS is subject to FOIA in the first place.”

Sauer remarked that the district court’s ruling “turns FOIA on its head, effectively granting [CREW] a victory on the merits of its FOIA lawsuit under the pretense of determining whether FOIA even applies.”

Furthermore, he emphasized that the court order “clearly infringes upon the separation of powers, imposing intrusive discovery on a presidential advisory body and jeopardizing the confidentiality and openness of its counsel, ostensibly to resolve a legal issue that should not have required discovery in this instance whatsoever.”

CREW contested the government’s urgent request to halt the district court order on Friday, contending that what the Trump administration “truly seeks is not relief from the district court’s specifically tailored discovery order, but rather a determination on the merits of whether the United States DOGE Service, a newly established entity within the Executive Office of the President, qualifies as an ‘agency’ under the Freedom of Information Act.”

The brief indicated that to acquire information regarding DOGE’s “opaque structure and operations, CREW filed an expedited FOIA request to DOGE on January 24, 2025,” yet the agency failed to respond promptly.

In response, CREW initiated a lawsuit, claiming that DOGE wields “significant independent authority”—a degree of power that, according to their brief, effectively categorizes it as an “agency” subject to both the Freedom of Information Act and the Federal Records Act.

Trump appointed Elon Musk to head DOGE with a special appointment that is set to expire this month. Musk stated last week that he would begin to concentrate “24/7” on his businesses.