Supreme Court Takes Up the DOGE Transparency Fight — Tuesday, October 13, 2026

0:00 You're listening to Alex and Jordan before 9. Get caught up on politics before your day gets going. I'm Alex. And I'm Jordan. It's Tuesday, October 13th, 2026. Today, the Supreme Court takes up the fight over government transparency, taxpayer -funded campaign ads that kept running after a judge said stop, a voter roll crisis in India, and the midterms now just three weeks out. Let's start at the Supreme Court, which agreed today to hear a dispute over whether the Department of Government Efficiency DOGE has to disclose its records to a watchdog group.

0:32 The administration's position is that DOGE was only an advisory body, so the Freedom of Information Act doesn't apply to it. The watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility in Ethics in Washington, disagrees, and a federal report earlier this year said DOGE overstated its claimed savings. This one matters because it will set the rules for how much the public gets to know about how government efficiency efforts actually worked. We'll follow it through the term. Now a follow -up to a story we covered yesterday.

1:00 Remember those taxpayer -funded pro -Trump midterm ads the judge ordered halted? The administration kept them running after the order, blaming an email delay. The judge flagged that roughly $20 million was shifted in the matter of hours. The ads are now a legal fight and a political one. Expect more on this in the days ahead. Turning overseas, India is in the middle of a major voter roll crisis. The opposition has asked the Supreme Court to halt a nationwide voter list revision after more than 130 million names were removed.

1:30 On Monday, protests in Delhi led to 45 metro stations being shut and more than 7 ,000 people arrested. The court is hearing detention petitions today and farmers are planning nationwide protests on October 23rd. This is one of the biggest election integrity stories in the world right now. And it goes to the heart of how a democracy of more than a billion people runs its elections. Back home, the midterms are three weeks out. Polls show Democrats leading with the cost of living driving disapproval.

2:00 But a word of caution, polls have been off before and a lot can move in three weeks. One concrete thing to watch. In Utah, mail ballots go out today under a new rule with no grace period. Your ballot has to arrive by 8 p .m. on election day. Postmark doesn't count anymore. That's the kind of rule change that can decide close races, and a lot of voters may not know about it yet. Finally, two White House personnel notes. Three AI safety testing officials are reportedly moving into the executive office, and a new press secretary, Katie Zakaria, is taking over ahead of her debut briefing.

2:33 The AI shuffle signals the administration wants a tighter grip on AI oversight as the technology and the politics around it heats up. So that's your briefing. The transparency fight at the Supreme Court? ads that wouldn't stop, India's voter roll crisis, and three weeks to the midterms. You're caught up before 9. We'll be back tomorrow morning. Same time, same place.