It's the legal team's job to push back on any new requests for data. Obviously there _is_ a reasonable limit of what the government can ask Google to provide. This particular cost is obviously far less than that limit ought to be given the stakes involved and the size of Google, but again, Google should push back too early and the government should ask for too much, and the judge should find the reasonable middle ground. That's fine, that's how our legal system works, and I suspect this article is overblowing a typical procedural step in the process.

All of that said, Google is not coming out looking like the good guy by fighting this case so hard. Their compensation analysts ought to be running these sorts of reports themselves. If they truly aren't, then that in itself is evidence (in my opinion) that Google is willfully neglecting its responsibility not to underpay its female employees.