US Judge Restricts DOGE Treasury Access in Privacy Fight (1)

A federal judge blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal information for millions of US union members at the Treasury and Education departments.

The Monday ruling by US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland extends a temporary restraining order she entered a month ago and expands it to apply to Treasury as well as Education and the federal Office of Personnel Management. She said the union members were likely to succeed in arguing that the government violated US privacy laws by giving DOGE-affiliated employees access to the records.

Her order comes as the Trump administration is trying to persuade another federal judge in New York to partially lift limits on Treasury data access she imposed on a DOGE-affiliated staffer.

Boardman said that the Trump administration failed to show why those staffers needed union members’ Social Security numbers, bank information and other sensitive data to fulfill a mandate to “modernize technology.” She said that top officials were taking a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to giving DOGE access to vast troves of information before determining if they actually need it.

“No matter how important or urgent the President’s DOGE agenda may be, federal agencies must execute it in accordance with the law. That likely did not happen in this case,” Boardman wrote.

Her order doesn’t completely bar DOGE staff from the agencies’ systems. She limited her order to restrict access to records about the more than two million members of the five unions that brought the case, as well as six individual plaintiffs who receive federal benefits or have federal student loans.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that “waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on.”

Kristy Parker, a lawyer with Protect Democracy who represents the plaintiffs, said in a statement that Boardman “re-affirmed that DOGE affiliates have not demonstrated a need to access Americans’ highly sensitive and private data to do their jobs. As we make our case in court, this ruling protects Americans’ right to privacy from people who may not have appropriate authority to access it and who may not be using it properly or with adequate safeguards.”

Boardman had already ordered the plaintiffs to post a $10,000 security in her February ruling and that money will stay with the court, according to her latest decision. Trump issued an executive order earlier this month requiring the Justice Department to demand such bonds, which the government could potentially recoup if it succeeds in reversing decisions on appeal.

In a New York case brought by Democratic state attorneys general, the Justice Department has asked US District Judge Jeannette Vargas to undo an order that barred DOGE-affiliated employee Ryan Wunderly from accessing Treasury records. Vargas previously suggested she would reconsider if the administration could show that DOGE staff went through the same trainings and vetting as other government employees who handle sensitive data.

On March 10, the Justice Department asked to dissolve the injunction as to Wunderly, saying they’d “addressed the Court’s concerns.” The state attorneys general oppose the change, saying there are still gaps in evidence about how Wunderly was vetted as well as his duties and supervision.

Vargas has yet to rule, but if she does grant the government’s request, Wunderly will still be subject to the restrictions in Boardman’s new order.

The case is American Federation of Teachers v. Bessent, 25-cv-430, US District Court, District of Maryland (Greenbelt).

(Updated with comment from Protect Democracy official.)

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

Anthony Lin, Elizabeth Wasserman

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