Judge Blocks DOGE Access to Social Security Records for Now (1)

A Maryland federal judge temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing the personal information of potentially hundreds of millions of Americans who receive retirement payments and other benefits from the US government.

US District Judge Ellen Hollander on Thursday restricted the activities of employees affiliated with the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency at the Social Security Administration. Her restraining order will apply for 14 days while she weighs whether to grant a longer-term injunction.

Hollander, who sits in Baltimore, wrote that the unions and the retiree-advocacy group that sued were likely to succeed in arguing that DOGE access to the agency’s systems violated US laws meant to safeguard sensitive information. Rooting out potential fraud, waste and abuse is in the public interest, but that doesn’t “mean that the government can flout the law to do so,” the judge said.

“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander wrote. “It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”

Read More: DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People

Hollander’s order prohibits officials at the Social Security Administration from giving Musk and others affiliated with the US DOGE Service access to agency systems that contain Americans’ personal information. They can still see records that are redacted or where personal information is made anonymous as long as they’ve gone through the same privacy trainings and background checks as other agency staff, the judge said.

Musk and DOGE staff have to delete any data they have that isn’t already anonymized and are barred from accessing or making changes to the agency’s computer code, according to the ruling.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek said in a statement, “We will work to comply with the court order.”

A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Today, the court did what accountability demands — forcing DOGE to delete every trace of the data it unlawfully accessed,” said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represents challengers in the case. “The court recognized the real and immediate dangers of DOGE’s reckless actions and took action to stop it.”

Reshaping Government

Musk and his DOGE team have swept through US agencies during the past two months as part of Trump’s push to reshape the federal government and cut spending. But judges in some instances have blocked or limited its staff from gaining access to records that contain Americans’ personal data, citing some of the same concerns as Hollander.

As of earlier this month, there were 10 staffers affiliated with DOGE at the Social Security Administration searching for evidence of fraud, waste and abuse, according to court filings from the US Justice Department.

The agency paid out more than $1.5 trillion in benefits last year to retirees, workers who become disabled and other households with limited income. Musk has called the Social Security program a “Ponzi scheme” and made claims about the extent of alleged fraud that aren’t supported by analysis from the agency’s inspector general.

The agency’s chief technology officer, Michael Russo, had said in a sworn statement that DOGE had access to copies of databases, meaning employees could review the data but couldn’t make changes to data on beneficiaries or payments.

As part of Hollander’s order, the plaintiffs in the case were required to post a $750 bond to cover the costs of any potential damages for the government, if it later succeeds in reversing her order.

The case is American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO v. Social Security Administration, 25-cv-596, US District Court, District of Maryland (Baltimore).

(Updated with additional information from the opinion and background starting in the fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Gregory Korte.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Zoe Tillman in Washington at ztillman2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Steve Stroth, Peter Blumberg

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