The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access millions of Americans’ personal data stored by the Social Security Administration (SSA) while it appeals an order that iced the advisory group out.
The emergency application asks the justices to lift a Maryland federal judge’s injunction blocking DOGE from poking around the SSA’s systems that contain personally identifiable information, including Social Security numbers, medical and mental health records, bank data, and earnings history.
“This emergency application presents a now-familiar theme: a district court has issued sweeping injunctive relief without legal authority to do so, in ways that inflict ongoing, irreparable harm on urgent federal priorities and stymie the Executive Branch’s functions,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the application.
Sauer argued that DOGE’s mission to “streamline government, eliminate waste, ferret out fraud and modernize outdated systems” is undermined by U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander’s order keeping the advisory group out of the SSA’s networks.
“The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs,” he said.
While the order still allows the SSA to provide DOGE with access to redacted or anonymized data and records, it requires DOGE agents to have received the necessary training for those systems.
Hollander, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote in her April 17 opinion granting injunctive relief that DOGE’s objectives are “laudable” and taxpayers have “every right” to expect their government to ensure their “hard-earned money is not squandered.” But that work is not the problem.
“The issue is about how they want to do the work,” the judge wrote.
DOGE’s access to Social Security was challenged by a coalition of government unions, backed by the left-leaning legal group Democracy Forward. The unions claim DOGE’s unfettered access to the sensitive data flouts privacy laws and the SSA’s own rules and regulations.
The coalition’s response to the emergency request is due Monday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in a divided 9-6 vote Wednesday said it would not pause Hollander’s injunction, prompting the administration to seek relief from the Supreme Court.
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