Trump administration asks Supreme Court to give Elon Musk's DOGE access to Social Security systems
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for Elon Musk 맥스카지노s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.
Related video above: A judge in Maryland recently ruled on DOGE access to sensitive information
The emergency appeal is the first in a string of applications to the high court involving DOGE's swift-moving work across the federal government.
It comes after a judge in Maryland restricted the team's access to Social Security under federal privacy laws. The agency holds personal records on nearly everyone in the country, including school records, bank details, salary information and medical and mental health records for disability recipients, according to court documents.
The government says the DOGE team needs access to target waste in the federal government. Musk, now preparing to step back from his work with DOGE, has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud. The billionaire entrepreneur has described it as a 맥스카지노 Ponzi scheme 맥스카지노 and insisted that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.
Solicitor General John Sauer argued Friday that the judge맥스카지노s restrictions disrupt DOGE맥스카지노s important work and inappropriately interfere with executive-branch decisions. 맥스카지노Left undisturbed, this preliminary injunction will only invite further judicial incursions into internal agency decision-making,맥스카지노 he wrote.
He asked the justices to block the order from U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland as the lawsuit plays out.
An appeals court previously refused to immediately to lift the block on DOGE access, though it split along ideological lines. Conservative judges in the minority said there맥스카지노s no evidence that the team has done any 맥스카지노targeted snooping맥스카지노 or exposed personal information.
The lawsuit was originally filed by a group of labor unions and retirees represented by the group Democracy Forward. The Supreme Court asked them for a response to the administration's appeal by May 12.
More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed over DOGE's work, which has included deep cuts at federal agencies and large-scale layoffs.
Video below: President Trump's first 100 days comes with legal challenges
Hollander found that DOGE's efforts at Social Security amounted to a 맥스카지노fishing expedition맥스카지노 based on 맥스카지노little more than suspicion맥스카지노 of fraud.
Her order does allow staffers to access data that has been made anonymous, but the Trump administration has said DOGE can't work effectively with those restrictions.
Elizabeth Laird with the nonprofit group Center for Democracy and Technology said wide-ranging access to sensitive personal data poses a serious threat. 맥스카지노If DOGE gets a hold of this information, it opens the floodgates on a host of potential harms. It also normalizes a very dangerous practice for other federal agencies,맥스카지노 she said.
The nation's court system has been ground zero for pushback to President Donald Trump맥스카지노s sweeping conservative agenda, with about 200 lawsuits filed challenging policies on everything from immigration to education to mass layoffs of federal workers.
Among those that have reached the Supreme Court so far, the justices have handed down some largely procedural rulings siding with the administration but have rejected the government맥스카지노s broad arguments in other cases.