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Court Blocks DOGE From Social Security 03/21 06:09
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk's
Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security systems that hold
personal data on millions of Americans, calling their work there a "fishing
expedition."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked
billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from Social
Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling
their work there a "fishing expedition."
The order also requires the team to delete any personally identifiable data
in their possession.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got
broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security Administration to
search for fraud with little justification.
"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in
search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," she wrote.
The order does allow DOGE staffers to access to data that's been redacted or
stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and
background checks.
"To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA
is in the public interest. But, that does not mean that the government can
flout the law to do so," Hollander wrote.
The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste in the federal
government. Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of
fraud, describing it as a " ponzi scheme " and insisting that reducing waste in
the program is an important way to cut government spending.
The ruling, which could be challenged on appeal, comes in a lawsuit filed by
labor unions, retirees and the advocacy group Democracy Forward. They argued
that DOGE access violates privacy laws and presents serious information
security risks. The lawsuit included a declaration from a recently departed
Social Security official who saw the DOGE team sweep into the agency said she
is deeply worried about sensitive information being exposed.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DOGE detailed a 10-person team of federal employees at the SSA, seven of
whom were granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable
information, according to court documents.
The staffers were all federal employees allowed to access the data under
federal privacy laws, the government argued, and there's no evidence that any
personal data was improperly shared.
The Justice Department also said that DOGE access doesn't deviate
significantly from normal practices inside the agency, where employees are
routinely allowed to search its databases. But attorneys for the plaintiffs
called the access unprecedented.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, called the ruling a "major win for working people and
retirees across the country."
Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said that "the court
recognized the real and immediate dangers of DOGE's reckless actions and took
action to stop it."
DOGE has gotten at least some access to other government databases,
including at the Treasury Department and IRS.
At SSA, DOGE staffers swept into the agency days after Trump's inauguration
and pressed for a software engineer to quickly get access to data systems that
are normally carefully restricted even within the government, a former official
said in court documents.
The team appeared to be searching for fraud based on inaccuracies and
misunderstandings, according to Tiffany Flick, the former acting chief of staff
to the acting commissioner.
Hollander, 75, who is based in Baltimore and was nominated by President
Barack Obama, is the latest judge to consider a DOGE related case.
The team has drawn nearly two dozen lawsuits. Earlier this week another
Maryland judge found that DOGE's dismantling of United States Agency for
International Development was likely unconstitutional.
While other judges have raised questions about DOGE's sweeping cost-cutting
efforts, they have not always agreed any risks are imminent enough to block the
team from government systems.
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