Supreme Court hands DOGE two big wins

The Supreme Court sided with the Department of Government Efficiency in two cases concerning the group’s access to Social Security data and whether it has to comply with a public records law.

In the Friday decisions, Supreme Court justices said they will allow the group to access Social Security Administration data it had been seeking and halted any forced compliance with a FOIA request from a government watchdog group. The court ruled 6-3 in both cases, with the liberal justices dissenting.

In the Social Security case, DOGE, which seeks to modernize and cut government spending, requested data from the Social Security Administration to achieve its goals. The DOGE team assigned to the agency should have “access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” according to the order.

In the public records case, the court ruled that the agency is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for further proceedings.

“The portions of the district court’s April 15 discovery order that require the government to disclose the content of intra–executive branch USDS recommendations and whether those recommendations were followed are not appropriately tailored,” the court order reads.

“Any inquiry into whether an entity is an agency for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act cannot turn on the entity’s ability to persuade. Furthermore, separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal executive branch communications.”

A district court ordered DOGE to hand over documents to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, but Chief Justice John Roberts halted the order last month.

Amid the Trump-Musk feud, this is welcome good news for conservatives. Will it be enough to mitigate the possible challenges the conservative movement might have as a result of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s split? Probably not, but it is a win for the right in America.