Judge Tosses Trump-Aligned Group’s Bid for Judiciary Records

A federal judge in Washington dismissed a conservative group’s lawsuit seeking documents from the judiciary, finding that the courts fall outside the scope of a federal records law.

US District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Donald Trump appointee, said in a Thursday opinion that he lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the case. America First Legal Foundation, a group founded by Trump administration officials after the president’s first term, filed the lawsuit in April.

Spokespeople for the federal judiciary and America First Legal didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

America First Legal was seeking documents about federal judiciary officials’ contacts with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga. or their staff. The conservative group argued that the Administrative Office of the US Courts and the Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s policy-making body, are agencies subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

McFadden, a conservative member of the US District Court for the District of Columbia , disagreed. He said court entities aren’t like the executive branch or independent agencies that fall under FOIA. He said the offices instead fall within FOIA’s exception for “courts of the United States.”

McFadden said some might agree with America First Legal’s claim that only judges fall under “the courts,” but that FOIA’s language suggests the entire judicial branch is excluded from the records law.

“Indeed, if America First were right that only judges and ‘law clerks,’ who ‘directly report to the judge,’ count as part of ‘the courts,’ numerous questions arise, and senseless line drawing ensues,” McFadden said. He questioned where other staff, like courtroom deputies and court reporters would fall, and why law clerks would be immune since they’re not constitutional officers.

“But setting ‘the courts’ in its proper context, FOIA involves no such arbitrariness,” he said. “Rather, FOIA’s exclusion reflects that courts include a full range of ‘judicial adjuncts,’ from ‘clerks’ to ‘court reporters,’” performing “‘tasks that are an integral part of the judicial process.’”

The case is America First Legal Foundation v Roberts, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-01232, 12/18/25.