On February 27, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that unions can depose DOGE in a case brought by a large labor union network, a think tank and two nonprofits against the Department of Labor (DOL), the HHS, and the CFPB (Agencies). The plaintiffs asserted certain agency actions, such as permitting DOGE personnel with access to individuals’ personal information held by the Agencies, violated the Privacy Act of 1974.

The court is addressing the plaintiffs’ motion for expedited discovery, which the plaintiffs argued was necessary to gather evidence for an impending preliminary injunction motion. The court granted the motion in part, allowing limited expedited discovery. The court determined the discovery would be “narrowly tailored” to the issues essential for deciding the preliminary injunction motion and will not be overly burdensome. The discovery will include limited interrogatories, document requests, and depositions, all focused on clarifying the scope and nature of the agency actions and the involvement of the U.S. Digital Service employees. This decision followed the court’s denial of the plaintiffs’ request to restrain the Agencies from providing DOGE personnel access to the Agencies’ records systems containing personal information (covered by InfoBytes here).