Judge Bars DOGE from Accessing Social Security Data or Installing Software There

Federal District Court Judge Ellen Hollander issued a temporary restraining order which bars the Social Security Administration from allowing DOGE to access records containing personally identifiable data and also barred DOGE from accessing or installing software at SSA.

Hollander ordered DOGE to “disgorge and delete” any data it has obtained from SSA that is not anonymized. DOGE is allowed to access SSA data that is anonymized or redacted, but such access is only permitted to those who “received all training that is typically required of individuals granted access to SSA data systems.”

The TRO came in response to a lawsuit filed by

• American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
• Alliance for Retired Americans
• American Federation of Teachers

Department of Justice lawyers told Hollander that SSA “provided DOGE affiliates with access to a ‘massive amount’ of records” to enable DOGE to “search for ‘improper or fraudulent payments’ made by SSA.” The data accessed contained non-anonymized specific personal and private data including but not limited to:

• Social Security numbers
• medical records
• mental health records
• hospitalization records
• bank account information
• credit card information
• driver’s license numbers
• tax information
• income history
• work history
• birth certificates
• marriage certificates
• home and work addresses

Hollander’s ruling included: “The American public may well applaud and support the Trump Administration’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and bloat from federal agencies, including SSA, to the extent it exists. But, by what means and methods? The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”

Despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises not to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, he and Elon Musk have been claiming without evidence that those programs are rife with fraud. Studies of those programs have consistently found them highly efficient and their fraud rates very low.

Click here for more details.

Click here to read Hollander’s ruling.