On DOGE, Directives, and DOJ -- Anna Bower - Lawfare

[erronis]

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/on-doge--directives--and-doj

A new court filing reveals the most compelling evidence yet that the government has been spinning a fiction about DOGE in federal court.

So much excellent analysis clipped from Anna Bower's post. Please read it directly.

“US DOGE service advises and consults,” said Kendall Lindemann, a DOGE representative, during a sworn deposition earlier this month.

Elon Musk “only has the ability to advise the President,” the Justice Department wrote in a court filing in February.

The United States DOGE Service “consults with agency heads and their designees on technology improvements and other matters related to the President’s DOGE agenda,” declared Amy Gleason, the purported administrator of DOGE.

For months, the Trump administration has fended off legal challenges to DOGE’s sweeping interventions in federal governance by insisting that neither DOGE nor its de facto leader, Elon Musk, have real decision-making authority. The common refrain—expressed in court filings, sworn statements, and depositions—is that DOGE merely advises agencies on which contracts to slash or which personnel to lay off en masse. According to the government, it’s ultimately up to the relevant agency officials to decide whether to act on DOGE’s recommendations.

It’s a convenient narrative. As a matter of legal strategy, the idea that DOGE merely advises rather than directs agency decision-making is a key part of the government’s defense in litigation alleging violations of the Appointments Clause. In other cases, the government has argued that DOGE is not an “agency” subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because its role is limited to advising and assisting the president.

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But a new court filing reveals the most compelling evidence yet that the government has been spinning a fiction in federal court.

The underlying case, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights v. United States Department of Justice, was brought by a network of legal aid groups that subcontract with the Acacia Center for Justice, which provides legal services for non-citizens and unaccompanied minor children.

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