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First Lawsuits Filed Against Elon Musk’s “DOGE”


— January 24, 2025

“The question every American should be asking is, ‘What are they hiding?’” Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement. “DOGE must not be allowed to operate in the shadows without the transparency, oversight, and opportunity for public participation required of any federal department by law.”


Advocacy groups across the country have filed lawsuits challenging the scope of the Department of Government Efficiency, or “DOGE,” a proposed government oversight organization run by Elon Musk.

According to CBS News, one of the lawsuits was filed Monday by the National Security Counselors public interest law firm. Attorneys for the group say that DOGE, which was formed with the intent of helping the government cut costs and reduce waste, is effectively being run as a federal advisory committee.

If DOGE can be categorized as an advisory committee, attorneys say, then it is currently in violation of federal law. Under the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or FACA, advisory committees like DOGE must be “objective and accessible to the public.”

Elon Musk, grinning and at ease, wearing a dark suit and a plaid shirt with an unbuttoned collar.
Elon Musk in 2008. Photo by JD Lasica, via Flickr. CC BY 2.0

Officials from Democracy Forward, a legal organization representing a coalition of veterans, public health professionals, and teachers, suggested that the opacity of DOGE’s operations is inherently problematic.

“The question every American should be asking is, ‘What are they hiding?’” Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman said in a statement. “DOGE must not be allowed to operate in the shadows without the transparency, oversight, and opportunity for public participation required of any federal department by law.”

In court filings, organizations involved in the lawsuits said that DOGE so far appears to have drawn candidates from among three groups: tech industry executives, former Trump campaign staffers, and the personal associates of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Attorneys argue that, if DOGE can be considered a federal advisory committee, then it must represent the interests of federal employees to comply with FACA.

“Not a single member of DOGE is a federal employee or represents the perspective of federal employees, despite the evidence that DOGE intends to provide recommendations regarding federal employment practices and ways to reduce the size of the federal workforce,” the lawsuit says.

Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors, told CBS MoneyWatch that the lawsuit is more about transparency than trying to prevent DOGE from reducing waste.

“Nobody disputes that there is a huge amount of wasteful spending in the federal government,” McClanahan said. “Our only concern is that DOGE, as it is currently constituted, lacks the expertise to understand how its recommendations will backfire if it pushes federal workers out without understanding why they are there in the first place.”

“Government work is not corporate work,” he said, “and any recommendations made without that perspective are doomed to fail.”

Sources

Elon Musk’s DOGE faces lawsuit as Donald Trump is inaugurated

Elon Musk’s DOGE faces lawsuits as Donald Trump takes office

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