A federal judge on Monday indefinitely blocked the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to troves of sensitive personal data from three federal agencies, the latest roadblock to its efforts to slim down the federal bureaucracy.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman barred the Department of Education (DOE), Department of the Treasury and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing the personal identifying information of about 2 million plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s access to any of the advisory board’s affiliates.
She noted that the Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal information collected by the government, citing Congress’s concern at the time that a single bureaucrat or institution could assemble “every detail of our personal lives” in an instant.
“Those concerns are just as salient today,” the judge wrote in a 68-page opinion. “No matter how important or urgent the President’s DOGE agenda may be, federal agencies must execute it in accordance with the law. That likely did not happen in this case.”
Six Americans sued Treasury, DOE and OPM over DOGE’s access to personally identifiable information they gave the government while collecting veterans benefits, applying for student loans and working as federal employees. Five union organizations, whose members’ personal data is also stored within the systems DOGE accessed, also joined the lawsuit.
Altogether, the plaintiffs amount to about 2 million people.
They contend that DOGE’s actions violate the Privacy Act, which was passed in response to the Watergate scandal and provides safeguards against breaches of privacy. In court filings, they accused the agencies of “abandoning their duties as guardians and gatekeepers” of the sensitive information of millions of Americans.
Though the plaintiffs initially sought a universal injunction against the agencies, which would have blocked DOGE’s access to everyone’s sensitive personal data at the agencies, the judge’s relief was more tailored, focusing only on the challengers.
Boardman previously entered a temporary restraining order preventing DOGE from accessing the data from DOE and OPM, but she declined at the time to extend the block to Treasury data. She cited a different federal judge’s preliminary injunction effectuating the same relief plaintiffs sought against that agency.
The lawsuit is one of more than a dozen pending cases challenging DOGE’s structure or access to systems at various federal agencies. Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk is said to be leading its sweeping cost-cutting efforts, but the White House has maintained that Musk is not technically part of DOGE, instead serving as a senior adviser to the president.
