US judge temporarily blocks Musk’s team from accessing social security administration system

On Thursday (March 20), a federal judge in the United States temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk from accessing the Social Security Administration system, which contains personal data of millions of Americans.

The ruling was made by US District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland, who requested the DOGE team to delete any personal identity information they may have obtained. This decision came after unions and retired individuals requested the court to urgently restrict the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Social Security Administration system and its vast personal database.

The plaintiffs claimed that DOGE had “almost unlimited” access rights, violating privacy laws and posing significant information security risks.

The Trump administration stated that DOGE has a team of ten federal employees within the Social Security Administration, with seven granted read-only access to the SSA system or personal identity information.

The government argued that the Department of Government Efficiency aims to combat waste and fraud within federal agencies.

However, Judge Hollander believed that the ends do not justify the means.

In her ruling, she wrote, “The Department of Government Efficiency team is essentially conducting a fishing expedition within the Social Security Administration,” attempting to uncover misconduct based solely on suspicion.

Government lawyers countered that DOGE’s access did not significantly deviate from normal practices within the SSA, which typically allows employees to search their databases.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyers argued that this level of access was unprecedented.

The Department of Government Efficiency team can still access databases from other government agencies, including the US Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Several judges have questioned the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to significantly cut costs, but they do not always believe that there is an immediate enough security risk to stop the team from accessing government systems.

(Reference: Associated Press)