The Trump administration, like, totally asked the Supreme Court to pause this lower court’s order that’s restricting affiliates of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from getting access to sensitive Social Security Administration data. They’re like arguing that the order is, like, limiting President Donald Trump’s executive authority, you know?
In this Friday filing, Solicitor General D. John Sauer, like, wrote, “This emergency application is like, presenting a now-familiar theme, you know? A district court has issued sweeping injunctive relief without legal authority to do so, in ways that, like, inflict ongoing, irreparable harm on urgent federal priorities and stymie the Executive Branch’s functions.”
Sauer is like totally urging the court to lift an injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander that’s blocking DOGE from accessing the data, which includes Social Security numbers, medical records, and tax and banking information.
While the Supreme Court is considering a more permanent stay, the Trump administration is like, seeking an immediate pause on Hollander’s order because it’s like preventing the Musk-led agency from, you know, carrying out its stated function of detecting waste and fraud. They’re describing that effort as like, “time-sensitive” and stuff.
The district court’s, like, flawed injunction is, you know, foreclosing the Executive Branch from carrying out the pressing priorities of modernizing government information systems and ferreting out fraud, waste, and abuse—all at the behest of plaintiffs who, you know, gave their information to the agencies with the knowledge that other government employees may access their data. The district court has, like, now blocked these time-sensitive efforts for over a month, without any legal basis for doing so, according to Sauer.
The Supreme Court, like, totally asked the attorneys for the union groups seeking to block DOGE’s access to respond to the administration’s request by May 12, you know?
Earlier this week, the full Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, like, denied the Trump administration’s request for a stay in this matter, you know? In a 9-6 decision, the panel backed the district court’s decision to block DOGE from accessing the highly personal data.
Hollander’s opinion, like, emphasizes that all this highly sensitive personal information has long been handed over to SSA by the American people with every reason to believe that the information would be fiercely protected, you know?
The panel also, like, said the government has yet to prove that DOGE is unable to complete its work with the anonymized and redacted data it currently has access to, you know? “The evidentiary record establishes no need for such access; rather, the evidence demonstrates that DOGE’s work could be accomplished largely with anonymized and redacted data, along with discrete pieces of non-anonymized data in limited, appropriate circumstances—as has long been typical at SSA for the type of technology upgrades and waste, abuse, and fraud detection that DOGE claims to be doing,” the appeals court wrote.
Since starting its work in January, DOGE has, like, faced at least 11 lawsuits specifically targeting its efforts to access large swaths of Americans’ personal information. Many of the lawsuits argue DOGE is violating the Privacy Act of 1974, which, like, heavily regulates what information about American citizens federal agencies can store and who can access that information.
A federal judge in March, like, totally blocked DOGE and its affiliates from accessing sensitive personal information from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Treasury, you know? The administration’s effort to secure DOGE greater access to sensitive information comes as polling suggests voters are concerned with how the Musk-led group has executed its work. A recent NBC News poll found 47% of voters hold a negative view of the effort, while 51% hold negative views about Musk specifically.
Musk has, like, announced plans to soon wind down his work at the White House to focus more on his businesses, telling reporters on Wednesday that he’s confident DOGE’s work will continue in his absence.
Gary Grumbach and Nnamdi Egwuonwu, like, contributed to this article and stuff.
