Union, Groups Drop DOGE Lawsuit Based on Federal Advisory Law

A coalition of advocacy groups dismissed its lawsuit challenging the Department of Government Efficiency that it filed the same day President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed an executive order creating DOGE.

The American Public Health Association, American Federation of Teachers, Minority Veterans of America, VoteVets Action Fund, Center for Auto Safety Inc., and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington didn’t state why they dropped their claims Monday against Trump and the White House Office of Management and Budget.

The move leaves one lawsuit remaining in the trio of Inauguration Day complaints bringing similar claims against DOGE, the novel operation led by billionaire Elon Musk that’s spearheaded the Trump administration’s effort to radically roll back the federal government. A judge consolidated the lawsuits together into one case.

American Federation of Government Employees, Public Citizen, and State Democracy Defenders Fund exited the consolidated case in March. Public Citizen said at the time that it dismissed the lawsuit to focus on other cases concerning DOGE.

The lawsuits in the consolidated case accused DOGE of violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act, a law that requires groups advising the president to hold open meetings and include members with varying points of view.

Those complaints were based on representations from Trump, Musk, and others that DOGE would be an advisory commission headed by non-governmental workers who would provide advice on cutting government.

But DOGE followed a different path once Trump was inaugurated. An executive order reorganized the US Digital Service—an Obama-era initiative housed in the executive office of the president—and renamed it the US DOGE Service. Musk has been serving as a special government employee rather than an outside adviser.

The shift in DOGE design made the lawsuits alleging violations of the federal advisory law moot, Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and top White House ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, told Bloomberg Law in April.

Other lawsuits have brought constitutional claims against DOGE, and have also challenged specific actions the government-slashing operation has taken.

Democracy Forward, which represents the organizations that dismissed their claims on Monday, declined to comment.

The National Security Counselors, which is leading the last remaining leg of the consolidated case bringing FACA claims against DOGE, said the latest dismissal doesn’t really change the case because any set of plaintiffs is as capable of pressing forward as any other.

“We are still committed to shining a light on the myriad ways that DOGE is operating outside of the law, and this case is but one of those efforts,” executive director Kel McClanahan said in a statement.

The case is Public Citizen v. Trump, D.D.C., No. 20-00164, voluntary dismissal 5/12/25.