This past Friday, February 6th, America First Legal Foundation (“AFLF”) filed a Notice of Appeal to the D.C. Circuit in America First Legal Foundation v. U.S. Government Accountability Office, a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case that challenges GAO’s status as an “agency.” As we noted last month, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan—unsurprisingly—dismissed AFLF’s case, holding that GAO was a legislative-branch agency and, thus, excluded from the FOIA’s definition of “agency” because it is part of “Congress.”
AFLF has not yet noticed an appeal in what might be described as a companion case, America First Legal Foundation v. Roberts, which challenges whether the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts are “agencies” for purposes of the FOIA. Judge Trevor McFadden granted the government’s motion to dismiss in that case on December 18, 2025.