A judge's decision on Monday means President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative must turn over one of its first batches of internal documents, an expert flagged Monday afternoon.
Washington, D.C. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly quizzed a government lawyer with questions over who was in charge at DOGE, even going so far as to suggest there could be constitutional violations under the Appointments Clause.
Lawyer Norm Eisen pointed out on Bluesky that not only did Kollar-Kotelly raise concerns, she also "concludes that we have standing and she orders production of the administration record! Those will be some of the first internal records that we will likely get regarding DOGE."
Eisen said Kollar-Kotelly joined with fellow judge Tanya Chutkan in raising such questions.
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During the hearing on whether Elon Musk leads DOGE, government lawyers acknowledged that despite what has been said in court documents and from the president himself, they still can't get the answers the judge seeks.
While Trump said publicly that Musk heads DOGE, in court, the Justice Department said the opposite.
The CATO Institute has said that to establish a government agency, Congress must pass a law and then fund the department through the budget.
Eisen said he and other lawyers representing State Democracy Defenders Action will be in a Maryland federal court on Friday to address the "Appointments Clause case and prove that DOGE is unconstitutional."
