Supreme Court allows DOGE team to access Social Security systems with data on millions of Americans

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for the Department of Authorities Efficiency to access Social Assurance systems containing personal figures on millions of Americans The court majority sided with the Trump administration in its first Supreme Court appeal involving DOGE the group once led by billionaire Elon Musk The three liberal justices dissented The high court halted an order from a judge in Maryland restricting the company s access to the Social Defense Administration under federal privacy laws The agency holds sensitive figures on nearly everyone in the country including school records salary details and medicinal information Related Articles Transgender troops face a deadline and a formidable decision Stay or go How Trump s pick for surgeon general uses her big online following to make money Trump and Musk break up and Washington holds its breath The implosion of a powerful political alliance Trump and Musk in their own words Goodbye Mr Nice Guy Investors dump Tesla on bet Trump may lash out at Musk through his car company The Trump administration says DOGE requirements access to carry out its mission of targeting waste and fraud in the federal ruling body Musk had been focused on Social Measure as an alleged hotbed of fraud The billionaire entrepreneur who has stepped back from his work with DOGE has described it as a Ponzi scheme and insisted that reducing waste in the effort is an essential way to cut governing body spending U S District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland determined that DOGE s efforts at Social Measure amounted to a fishing expedition based on little more than suspicion of fraud and allowing unfettered access puts Americans private information at threat Her ruling did allow access to anonymous details for staffers who have undergone training and background checks or wider access for those who have detailed a specific need The Trump administration has commented DOGE can t work effectively with those restrictions Solicitor General John Sauer also argued that the ruling is an example of federal judges overstepping their authority and trying to micromanage executive branch agencies The plaintiffs say it s a narrow order that s urgently needed to protect personal information An appeals court previously refused to instantly to lift the block on DOGE access though it split along ideological lines Conservative judges in the minority noted there s no evidence that the association has done any targeted snooping or exposed personal information The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of labor unions and retirees represented by the group Democracy Forward It s one of more than two dozen lawsuits filed over DOGE s work which has included deep cuts at federal agencies and large-scale layoffs The nation s court system has been ground zero for pushback to President Donald Trump s sweeping conservative agenda with about lawsuits filed challenging policies on everything from immigration to teaching to mass layoffs of federal workers