Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to access sensitive information kept by the Social Security Administration while legal proceedings move forward.
In an unsigned order, the high court agreed to temporarily lift an injunction issued by a federal district court in Maryland that limited DOGE’s access to agency systems of records containing the personal information of millions of Americans. Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
“We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,” the Supreme Court said in its decision.
The emergency appeal to the Supreme Court was the first to land before the high court that directly involved DOGE, the initiative previously led by Elon Musk that aims to shrink the size of the federal government. DOGE’s sweeping efforts have sparked numerous lawsuits. Plaintiffs have argued that the task force has violated federal privacy law governing the government’s collection and use of Americans’ information kept by agencies.
Jackson, joined by Sotomayor, said it’s not clear that it is in the public’s interest for the Social Security Administration to give DOGE staff access to Americans’ data before it’s been established that they are entitled to it and said the Supreme Court’s decision creates “grave privacy risks for millions.”
“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,” she wrote. “The court is thereby, unfortunately, suggesting that what would be an extraordinary request for everyone else is nothing more than an ordinary day on the docket for this Administration.”
The lawsuit
The challenge before the high court was brought by two labor unions and an advocacy group, which alleged that the Social Security Administration had unlawfully granted DOGE unfettered access to its data systems containing massive quantities of sensitive and personally identifiable records. In addition to Social Security numbers, the agency’s systems house medical information, school records, employment histories and financial data, among other records.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander concluded in April that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claim that the Social Security Administration’s decision to give DOGE access to millions of Americans’ confidential information violated the Privacy Act and a federal law governing the agency rulemaking process.
She did allow DOGE team members to have access to redacted or anonymized information from the Social Security Administration, but only if they met certain conditions, such as undergoing trainings and background investigations.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit declined a Trump administration request to lift that injunction, and the Justice Department turned to the Supreme Court for emergency relief.
In asking the high court to lift the district court’s injunction, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the block is forcing the executive branch to stop federal employees tasked with modernizing government systems from accessing the data contained within them.
“The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs,” he said.
Sauer also argued that the district court did not have the legal authority to issue sweeping relief, which he said harmed “urgent federal priorities” and thwarted the executive branch’s functions.
“Employees charged with modernizing government information systems and routing out fraud, waste, and abuse in data systems plainly need access to those systems,” he wrote. “Yet the district court instead viewed agency employees within the SSA DOGE team as the equivalent of intruders who break into hotel rooms.”
But lawyers for the plaintiffs said that the Social Security Administration’s efforts to give DOGE team members access to its data systems is a departure from the agency’s commitment to data security.
“SSA granted unprecedented and sweeping access to the most sensitive information held by the government, doing so without acknowledging the sea change in their own practices and policies, without considering the reliance interests millions of Americans have in SSA continuing to preserve the confidence of their information, and without acknowledging or considering the risks posed by unauthorized DOGE Team access,” they wrote in a filing.
The unions argued that their members’ harm builds every day that DOGE has access to sensitive, personally identifiable information at the Social Security Administration, and said Americans’ right to privacy is at stake.
President Trump established DOGE on his first day back in the White House. The task force’s employees have been dispatched to agencies across the executive branch as part of the president’s plan to decrease the size of the government.
But DOGE’s efforts to access Americans’ sensitive data at agencies including the Departments of Treasury and Education, and the Office of Personnel Management, have sparked legal fights over whether the task force’s members have been complying with the Privacy Act, the federal law that aims to protect Americans’ private information.
Musk’s previous work with DOGE, before he left government service last week, led to its own set of challenges that argue his actions violate the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. A different federal judge in Maryland ruled in March that Musk and DOGE likely violated the Constitution through its unilateral shut down of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The 4th Circuit agreed to pause that decision while it considers an appeal by the Trump administration.
