Updated April 18, 2025 at 11:31 AM ET
A federal judge has once again blocked Department of Government Efficiency staffers who are operating inside the Social Security Administration (SSA) from accessing sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.
The issuing of a preliminary injunction comes in a lawsuit filed by a group of unions and retirees in Maryland, and is one of more than a dozen suits to raise alarms about the kind of data DOGE has accessed, and how such data could be used.
In a 148-page memorandum explaining the decision, U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander wrote late Thursday that "the issue here is not the work that DOGE or the Agency want to do," but rather "how they want to do the work."
"To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest," Hollander wrote, referencing DOGE's stated aims. "But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so."
Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson in the Social Security press office, said in a statement they will "appeal this decision and expect ultimate victory on the issue. The American people gave President Trump a clear mandate to uproot waste, fraud, and abuse across the federal government. The Trump Administration will continue to fight to fulfill the mandate."
Hollander, an Obama appointee, previously granted a temporary restraining order against DOGE on March 20, questioning at the time why the agency did not narrow its scope when using data that includes personally identifiable information (PII), and calling DOGE's methods "tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer."
A federal appeals court dismissed on April 1 the Trump administration's effort to lift Hollander's temporary restraining order.
Now, weeks later, Hollander said the Trump administration still did not adequately explain why it needed to give a handful of staffers "unprecedented, unfettered access to virtually SSA's entire data systems," in order to detect waste, fraud and abuse.
"The DOGE Team seeks access to the PII that millions of Americans entrusted to SSA, and the SSA Defendants have agreed to provide it," she wrote. "For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation."
In seeking to justify DOGE team members having access to PII in Social Security databases, SSA's Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek had listed three projects the DOGE team needed to work on, but the judge wrote that his "explanations are imprecise, contradictory, and insufficient."
This latest ruling prevents DOGE staffers from accessing Social Security databases that contain PII; directs them to delete any non-anonymized data in their possession from those databases, and to remove any software that DOGE staffers have previously installed on SSA systems; and to stop accessing or altering Social Security code.
The restrictions do not apply to non-DOGE SSA staff or to DOGE members who want to use anonymized data and have received proper privacy training.
In a statement, Skye Perryman — president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which is representing the unions and retirees in the case — said the ruling "is a significant relief for the millions of people who depend on the Social Security Administration to safeguard their most personal and sensitive information."
Continued concern over DOGE's data access
The Social Security Administration is one of many federal agencies where federal judges have found the Elon Musk-led DOGE effort has likely violated the law in its efforts to access sensitive databases maintained by the federal government.
A top Musk ally working inside the Social Security Administration has recently pushed dubious claims about noncitizen voting, apparently using the type of personal data that court records suggest DOGE should not have.
And the injunction came hours after the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform raised concerns about DOGE's activities at the SSA, citing whistleblower reports. The Democrat, Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, requested an investigation by an SSA inspector general.
The SSA has sought several changes under the acting leadership of Dudek, including plans to cut thousands of jobs and an ultimately reversed proposal to enact in-person requirements for beneficiaries.
There are other concerns about what DOGE is doing inside the federal government.
This week, a whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board said someone had removed case management data from the agency after DOGE accessed its system last month.
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