Appeals court restores DOGE access to sensitive information at US
agencies
[April 08, 2025]
By LEA SKENE
BALTIMORE (AP) — An appeals court on Monday cleared the way for
billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to once
again access people’s private data at three federal agencies, a win for
the Trump administration as the underlying lawsuit plays out.
In a split ruling, the three-judge panel blocked a lower court decision
that halted DOGE access at the Education Department, the Treasury
Department and the Office of Personnel Management. U.S. District Judge
Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction last month in federal
court in Baltimore, saying the government failed to adequately explain
why DOGE needed the information to perform its job duties.
Led by the American Federation of Teachers, the plaintiffs allege the
Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it gave DOGE
access to systems with personal information on tens of millions of
Americans without their consent, including people’s income and asset
information, Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses and
marital and citizenship status.
The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste across the federal
government by addressing alleged fraud and upgrading technology.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has also sided with the Trump
administration in other cases, including allowing DOGE access to U.S.
Agency for International Development and letting executive orders
against diversity, equity and inclusion move forward. The court left in
place, however, an order temporarily blocking DOGE from the Social
Security Administration, which contains vast amounts of personal
information.
In Monday’s opinion, Judge G. Steven Agee of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals wrote that Boardman’s decision misread legal precedent in
“requiring nothing more than abstract access to personal information to
establish a concrete injury.” As a result, Agee wrote, the government
demonstrated “a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the
merits of their appeal.”
Agee, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, was joined in
his opinion by Judge Julius Richardson, who was nominated to the bench
in 2018 by Republican President Donald Trump. They agreed to stay the
preliminary injunction as the case proceeds.
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Elon Musk attends the finals for the NCAA wrestling championship,
Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke,
file)
In his concurring opinion, Richardson wrote that more evidence is
needed to establish whether the access is necessary. “But it does
not stretch the imagination to think that modernizing an agency’s
software and IT systems would require administrator-level access to
those systems, including any internal databases,” he wrote.
The third judge disagreed. “Simply put, I think the district court
got things right,” Judge Robert King wrote in his dissenting
opinion. King, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill
Clinton, said he requested a larger panel of all 4th Circuit judges
to consider the case, but the request was denied.
The lawsuit accused the Trump administration of handing over
sensitive data for reasons beyond its intended use, violating the
Privacy Act. Instead of carrying out the functions of the federal
student loan program, the lawsuit says, DOGE has been accessing loan
data “for purposes of destroying” the Education Department.
One of the nation’s largest teachers unions, the American Federation
of Teachers says it represents 1.8 million workers in education,
health care and government. Also joining the suit were six people
with sensitive information stored in federal systems, including
military veterans who received federal student loans and other
federal benefit payments. The suit also was backed by the National
Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, and the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
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Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed
reporting.
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