American Oversight v. Hegseth

The case ended when the parties filed a joint stipulation of dismissal and Chief Judge James E. Boasberg dismissed it with prejudice on May 1, 2026, following a stay entered in March 2026 while the parties negotiated. The only substantive ruling on the merits question came earlier, when the court granted in part and denied in part American Oversight's motion for a preliminary injunction on June 20, 2025, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on their claim that the officials' Signal communications about official government business fell within the Federal Records Act's preservation requirements. The government defendants were ordered to notify the Acting Archivist of any at-risk Signal chats, and the Archivist was ordered to seek their recovery through the Attorney General. That preliminary injunction ruling was never converted into a final merits judgment before the case was dismissed by stipulation.