Department of Government Efficiency wants to use SS numbers, medical records, tax, banking info to detect waste and fraud
The US Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can access Americans' Social Security Administration data.
The 6-3 conservative-majority vote overruled a lower court order injunction in the state of Maryland to pause DOGE's collection of Social Security numbers, medical records, and tax and banking information to detect waste and fraud.
The three liberal justices dissented, with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson saying: "In essence, the 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes."
The unsigned order said DOGE members assigned to the Social Security Administration should have "access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work."
"To accept this line of argument sends a troubling message: that this Court will allow departures from our stated legal standards and the basic norms of our judicial system...for certain litigants," said Jackson.
"Today, the Court grants a stay permitting the Government to give unfettered data access to DOGE regardless--despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access," he added.
The lawsuit challenging DOGE's actions was brought by two unions — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers — as well as the Alliance for Retired Americans.
They alleged that allowing broader access to workers' Social Security data would violate a federal law called the Privacy Act as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.
