A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), fronted by Elon Musk, from personal Social Security Administration (SSA) information, delivering another judicial setback for the Trump administration.
“The American public may well applaud and support the Trump Administration’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and bloat from federal agencies, including SSA, to the extent it exists. But, by what means and methods?” the Maryland-based judge asked in her conclusion. “The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion.”
DOGE appears to have started “a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” she also said, adding that the SSA provided DOGE staff with Americans’ personal records.
That included “unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses,” the judge said.
Plaintiffs who filed their lawsuit against SSA said that DOGE had “nearly unlimited” access that violates privacy laws and presents massive information security risks. The lawsuit was led by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union.
Describing DOGE’s efforts as “overreach,” the plaintiffs said the department is “threatening to review and expose the personal data of millions of Americans, without any express authority, and in violation of the many protections Congress and the Executive Branch have erected to protect against such data mining and misuse.”
Trump administration lawyers said in court that DOGE has a 10-person team of federal employees at the SSA, seven of whom have been granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable information. Those officials have received privacy training and eight passed background checks as of earlier this month, lawyers said.
They also said that the plaintiffs were not able to provide evidence that they will face imminent harm by allowing DOGE to access the SSA database.
“Both the equities and the public interest support permitting the government to exercise its lawful authority to hire employees and give those employees access to systems as required for their job duties,” they wrote in response, adding that DOGE is targeting waste and fraud in the federal government.
In separate cases, several judges have raised questions about DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, but they have not always concluded that the risks are imminent enough to block the department from accessing government systems.
