Olusegun Ariyo
A federal judge on Monday blocked the government downsizing team created by President Donald Trump and spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk from accessing sensitive data maintained by the US Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management.
District Judge, Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland issued the temporary restraining order at the behest of a coalition of labour unions who argued that the agencies wrongly granted Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, access to records containing personal information on millions of Americans.
According to the judge, the plaintiffs had established that both agencies had likely violated federal law by granting DOGE sweeping access to sensitive personal information in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974.
That information, the judge said, included Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status and disability status for current and former federal employees and student aid recipients.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration had argued that a ruling blocking DOGE from accessing the information would impede the Republican president’s ability to fulfil his agenda by limiting what information his advisors can access.
However, Boardman, an appointee of Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden, said her order prevents the disclosure of the plaintiffs’ sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates who, on the current record, do not need to know the information to perform their duties.
The White House has not yet commented on the development.
