U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander ruled in favor of a group of unions and retirees in Maryland who sued to prevent DOGE from accessing Social Security data. She issued a temporary restraining order on March 20 and, in a Thursday ruling, decided DOGE didn’t properly explain why it required “unprecedented, unfettered access to virtually the Social Security Administration’s entire data systems.”
“To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest,” Hollander said in a 148-page memorandum. “But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so.”
She ruled that SSA acting Commissioner Leland Dudek’s “explanations are imprecise, contradictory, and insufficient.”
The plaintiffs argued that SSA’s decision to give DOGE access to Social Security data showed it “has abandoned its commitment to maintaining the privacy of personal data” and unlawfully “opened its data systems to unauthorized personnel from [DOGE] in violation of applicable laws and with disregard fo[r] the privacy interest of the millions of Americans that SSA serves.”
Hollander said the SSA’s decision to turn over personally identifiable information to DOGE represented a dangerous violation of privacy and trust.
“The DOGE Team seeks access to the PII that millions of Americans entrusted to SSA, and the SSA Defendants have agreed to provide it,” she said. “For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation.”
SOCIAL SECURITY IS IN WORSE SHAPE THAN YOU THINK
As a result of the ruling, DOGE must delete any nonanonymous data, stop accessing the Social Security code, and remove any software installed on SSA systems.
DOGE’s fast action in the opening weeks of the Trump administration has slowed down as legal challenges have piled up. Its approach to Social Security has come under particular scrutiny, especially from Democrats.
