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A win for DOGE

Elon Musk and Trump win fight to keep DOGE’s work secret

Musk and DOGE don't have to comply with discovery order, appeals court rules.

Jon Brodkin – | 210
Elon Musk wearing a T-shirt with the word "DOGE" printed on the front.
Elon Musk at the White House on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images | Samuel Corum
Elon Musk at the White House on March 9, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty Images | Samuel Corum

Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) don't have to turn over information related to their government cost-cutting operations, at least for now, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

A federal judge previously ruled that 14 states suing the federal government can serve written discovery requests on Musk and DOGE. Musk, DOGE, and President Trump turned to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an attempt to block that order.

A three-judge panel at the appeals court granted an emergency motion for a stay in an order issued yesterday, putting the lower-court ruling on hold pending further orders from the appeals court. "Petitioners have satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay," the panel ruling said. "In particular, petitioners have shown a likelihood of success on their argument that the district court was required to decide their motion to dismiss before allowing discovery."

Musk, DOGE, and Trump filed a petition to quash the district court's discovery order at the same time that they filed their emergency motion for a stay. The appeals court did not rule on the petition to quash the discovery order. The three-judge panel included judges appointed by George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

The states suing the US alleged that "President Trump has delegated virtually unchecked authority to Mr. Musk without proper legal authorization from Congress and without meaningful supervision of his activities." They sought "planning, implementation, and organizational documents," but no emails, text messages, or other electronic communications.

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US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied a request for depositions but otherwise found the states' discovery requests to be "reasonable and narrowly tailored to their request for injunctive relief."

Musk, Trump called discovery “sweeping and intrusive”

Plaintiffs did not seek information from Trump himself. But the emergency motion for a stay alleged that the district court required "sweeping and intrusive discovery into the operations of the Office of the President, requiring the Chief Executive to produce information detailing both the substance of the advice provided by his closest advisors and the process through which that advice was formulated and communicated to the President and other Executive Branch officials."

Musk and the US said that discovery should be a last resort and not conducted "at the very outset of the case," and that the plaintiffs' claims can be evaluated without discovery. "Plaintiffs allege a violation of the Appointments Clause and USDS's [US DOGE Service's] statutory authority on the theory that USDS and Mr. Musk are directing decision-making by agency officeholders," the US said. "Those claims present pure questions of law that can be resolved—and rejected—on the basis of plaintiffs' complaint."

States argued that discovery is needed to "confirm what investigative reporting has already indicated: Defendants Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency ('DOGE') are directing actions within federal agencies that have profoundly harmed the States and will continue to harm them." They said that "only Defendants possess the documents and information that Plaintiffs need to confirm public reporting and identify which agencies Defendants will target next so Plaintiffs can seek preliminary relief and mitigate further harm."

The appeals court could get involved again after the district court rules on a motion to dismiss. "The parties are directed to promptly notify this court upon the district court's disposition of petitioners' motion to dismiss," the appeals court said.

Despite yesterday's win for Musk and Doge, some judges have ordered limits on their access to private data contained in government systems. Judges have ordered the government to halt DOGE's access to records held by the Social Security Administration, Treasury Department, Department of Education, and Office of Personnel Management.

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Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.
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