By Lea Skene, Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) – A federal judge imposed new restrictions on the Ministry of Elon Musk on Thursday’s Ministry of Government efficiency, limiting its access to social security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans.
The American district judge Ellen Hollander published a preliminary injunction in the case, which was brought by a group of unions and retirees which allege that the recent actions of DOGE violate the laws on confidentiality and present massive risks of information security. Hollander had previously made a temporary ban order.
The injunction allows DOGE staff to access the data that has been exploded or stripped of something personally identifiable, if they follow training and checks of the history.
Hollander said that Doge and any staff affiliated to DOGE must serve all the non -anonymized social security data that they have received since January 20. They cannot also make changes to the IT code or to the software used by the Social Security Administration, must delete any software or code that they could have already installed, and are prohibited from disclosing any code to others.
“The objective of fighting fraud, waste, mismanagement and bloating is laudable, and the American public applauds and probably supports,” wrote Hollander in the decision published late Thursday evening. “Indeed, taxpayers have the right to expect their government to ensure that their harshly won money is not wasted.”
But that’s not the problem, said Hollander – the problem is how Doge wants to do the work.
“For some 90 years, the SSA has been guided by the fundamental principle of an expectation of private life with regard to its files. This case exposes a large crack in the foundation,” wrote the judge.
During a hearing of the Federal Court on Tuesday in Baltimore, Hollander asked government lawyers several times why Doge needed “apparently unhindered access” to the trves of the sensitive personal information agency to discover social security fraud.
The members of the union and the retirees gathered outside the courthouse to protest against the actions of Doge, which they consider as a threat to the future of social security benefits.
“What are we doing who requires all this information?” Hollander said, wondering if most of the data could be anonymized, at least in the early stages of the analysis.
Lawyers from the Trump administration said the change of process would slow their efforts.
“Although anonymization is possible, it is extremely heavy,” said the prosecutor of the Ministry of Justice Bradley Humphreys in court.
He argued that DOGE access does not significantly deviate from normal practices within the agency, where employees and listeners are regularly authorized to seek its databases.
But the lawyers of the complainants called it unprecedented and “a maritime change” in terms of the way the agency manages sensitive information, including medical and mental health files and other data relating to children and disabled people – “problems that are not only sensitive but can bear stigmatization”.
Access to itself is a violation of privacy which causes damage to social security beneficiaries, said Alethea Anne Swift, lawyer of the legal services group Democracy Forward, who is behind the trial.
“This intrusion causes an objectively reasonable discomfort,” she said.
Social Security Administration has experienced unrest since President Donald Trump began his second term. In February, the acting commissioner of the Agency Michelle King left her role after refusing to provide the members of Doge staff with the access they wanted.
The White House replaced it by Leland Dudek – who did not appear during the hearing on Tuesday after Hollander asked for his presence to testify on recent efforts involving Doge. The judge published a letter last month in reprimanding the threats of Dudek that he may have to close the agency operations or to suspend payments due to the temporary ban on Hollander.
Hollander clearly indicated that his order was not applied to SSA workers who are not affiliated or provide information to Doge, so that they can always access all the data they use during ordinary work. But DOGE staff who wish to access anonymized data must first follow the typical training and checks of the required history of other members of the Social Security Administration, she said.
In recent weeks, Dudek has faced calls to resign after making a prescription that would have forced Maine’s parents to record their newborns to social security numbers in a federal office rather than the hospital. The order was quickly canceled. But the emails have shown that it was the political return to the governor of Maine Janet Mills, a democrat who challenged the Trump administration to refuse federal funding to the state compared to transgender athletes.
Despite the loaded political context surrounding the Doge Access case, Hollander urged Humphreys when he suggested during Tuesday’s hearing that his interrogation began to “feel like a policy disagreement”.
“I am offended by your comment because I just try to understand the system,” said the judge during Tuesday’s hearing.
Hollander, 75, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama, is the last judge to consider a case linked to the Doge.
Many of its surveys on Tuesday focus on the question of whether the social security case differs considerably from another case of Maryland contesting Doge access to data in three other agencies: the Department of Education, the Treasury Department and the Staff Management Office. In this case, a court of appeal recently blocked a preliminary injunction and paved the way in Doge to access the private data of people again.
The Hollander’s injunction could also be on appeal before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which are reassured with the Trump administration in other cases, in particular by allowing DOGE access to the American international development agency and to leave decrees against diversity, equity and inclusion.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
