A federal judge linked DOGE's efforts to uncover and eliminate inefficiencies and fraud within the Social Security Administration (SSA) to a "fishing expedition," on Thursday ultimately blocking Elon Musk's cost-cutting team from accessing Americans' personal data stored by the agency.
District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a temporary restraining order that requires all DOGE staffers to erase any personally identifiable information they may have obtained from the SSA, along with any software they had installed at the agency. The Maryland judge also ordered senior SSA officials to block Musk's team from accessing any systems containing sensitive details such as Social Security numbers, medical records, financial accounts, income history, and tax documents.
DOGE Faces Roadblock
Hollander, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, allowed the SSA to share "redacted or anonymized data" with DOGE during the 14-day restraining order. The judge appeared doubtful about DOGE's objectives and the necessity of accessing such highly sensitive information.
"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?" Hollander wrote in her 134-page order.
"The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion," she argued. "It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack."
Hollander said that the Trump administration "never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA's entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government."
She compared DOGE's approach to identifying waste, fraud, and abuse as "hitting a fly with a sledgehammer."
No More Dodging
In the lawsuit filed by labor unions, the Trump administration revealed that out of the 10-member DOGE team working at the SSA, seven had read-only access to personally identifiable information.
The administration argued that DOGE's access was not substantially different from that of other federal employees at the SSA, who regularly have permission to search its databases.
The president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees—one of the unions that sued the Trump administration—praised the court's ruling on Thursday.
"This is a major win for working people and retirees across the country," AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a statement. "The court saw that Elon Musk and his unqualified lackeys present a grave danger to Social Security and have illegally accessed the data of millions of Americans."
Michelle King, the former acting head of the SSA, resigned last month after allegedly objecting to DOGE's attempts to gain access to the agency's confidential databases.
Leland Dudek took over as King's successor and has backed DOGE's initiatives. Under his leadership, several SSA offices have been closed, affecting hundreds of employees.
