A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s government efficiency and accessed personal data from people in the Education Department, the Treasury Department and the Office of Personnel Management.
Deborah Boardman, a US district judge, Case submitted last month by a federal court union union in Maryland. The plaintiff, led by the American Federation of Teachers, alleges that he violated federal privacy laws when Trump’s administration gave DOGE access to a system that has personal information about tens of millions of Americans without his consent.
Boardman, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden, had previously issued a temporary restraining order. The interim injunction provides long-term relief blocking doge access as cases unfold.
The judge found that the Trump administration is likely to be violating the law. She said the government could not properly explain why Doge needed access to “millions of records” to perform its duties.
She also said the Trump administration can still carry out the president’s agenda without receiving free access to personal data about federal employees and those with student loans and government benefits. This includes income and property information, Social Security number, date of birth, home address, marriage and citizenship status.
“They trusted the federal government to protect their information, and that public trust is likely to be violated,” the board wrote in her opinion.
The lawsuit accused the Trump administration of handing over sensitive data beyond its intended use and violating privacy laws. The lawsuit says Doge is accessing loan data “with the aim of destroying the education sector.”
President Donald Trump signed Presidential Order Last week, it said that student loans will be processed by small business administrators to demolish faculties, and programs involving students with disabilities will be moving to the Department of Health and Human Services.
His administration says Doge is targeting waste across the federal government by addressing alleged fraud and upgrade technology.
The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s largest teacher unions, says it represents 1.8 million workers in education, healthcare and government. Also participating in the lawsuit were six people with sensitive information stored in the federal system, including military veterans who received federal student loans and other federal benefits.
The case was also supported by the National Association of Active and Retired Federal Employees and the International Association of Mechanics and Aerospace Workers.
Any injunctions that may be challenged upon appeal are limited to protecting the personal information of individual plaintiffs and group members.
“No matter how important or urgent the President’s Doge agenda is, federal agencies must follow the law to do so,” the board wrote. “In this case, that probably didn’t happen.”
A judge in another Maryland case last week Temporarily blocked doge From access to a Social Security database that also contains a huge amount of personal information.
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