A federal judge is set to explore whether to allow two groups, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to intervene in a lawsuit seeking the public disclosure of government information about Internet activist Aaron Swartz.

MIT, represented by a team from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, last week filed a request to intervene in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in Washington. JSTOR, the online database of academic journals, has also asked to step into the litigation.