A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction preventing Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff from accessing sensitive data at the Social Security Administration (SSA). The ruling follows a lawsuit from unions and retirees concerned about privacy. Judge Ellen Hollander stressed that while preventing fraud is important, it cannot justify violating laws. The ruling reinforces the foundational principle of privacy at the SSA, as the Trump administration failed to justify the need for broad access to sensitive personal information, which raised serious concerns about potential misuse.
"To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest... But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so."
"...the issue here is not the work that DOGE or the Agency want to do, but rather how they want to do the work."
"the Trump administration still did not adequately explain why it needed to give a handful of staffers unprecedented, unfettered access to virtually SSA's entire data systems."
"For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to personal data."
Collection
[
|
...
]