TPM Informs the Superior Court that Mayor Bowser Continues to Flout the Court’s Open Government Orders

In 2020, TPM brought a DC Freedom of Information Act case against the District of Columbia because the Mayor refused to turn over budget materials that reflect determinations by DC agencies about how much money they need to do their work. DC law requires that information be made public. TPM’s position was supported by the D.C. Council as well as various open government groups. TPM prevailed in the Superior Court and then in the Court of Appeals in June 2025. The Court of Appeals underscored the importance of this issue by quoting the Supreme Court’s statement that “[t]he generation that made the nation ... committed itself to the principle that a democracy cannot function unless the people are permitted to know what their government is up to.”

The same issues have for years been at play in a similar and longstanding conflict between the D.C. Council and the Mayor related to the Council’s access to the budget information. On October 14, 2022, the Washington City Paper reported on these interrelated open government issues in an article titled, “Bowser Fights Budget Transparency. No One Is Surprised.”

After TPM’s case returned to the Superior Court in August 2025 to determine what additional injunctive relief should be issued, the Mayor has continued to refuse to produce the budget documents that TPM sought. TPM moved for contempt in November 2025 and that motion is pending.

TPM recently learned that, on January 6, 2026, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff issued a memo instructing all agency heads that they should continue to withhold such budget request documents from the D.C. Council and, further, that they should assert the same deliberative process and executive privileges that were rejected by the Courts in TPM’s case. On January 30, 2026, TPM filed a notice informing the Court of this concerning development.

Coverage of developments related to this case, and related action by the D.C. Council, is here.

For more information, please contact Todd Gluckman at tgluckman@tpmlaw.com or 202-204-8482.