A Maryland judge has granted a preliminary injunction preventing the US Treasury, Education, and Office of Personnel Management from sharing personal data of union members with Elon Musk's DOGE team. Judge Deborah Boardman ruled that the agencies likely violated the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act in granting access without proper consent. The injunction came after complaints from unions and veterans, emphasizing the importance of adhering to legal standards when handling personal information, regardless of the urgency of the DOGE program's cost-cutting goals.
Enacted 50 years ago, the Privacy Act protects from unauthorized disclosure the massive amounts of personal information that the federal government collects from large swaths of the public.
Those concerns are just as salient today. 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.
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