Feb. 24, 2025
By Shauneen Miranda – States Newsroom D.C. Bureau
WASHINGTON D.C. — A federal judge in Maryland on Monday temporarily blocked the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management from providing “personally identifiable information” to Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.
A group of labor unions, membership organizations and several U.S. military veterans filed a lawsuit earlier this month over allegations that the two entities, in addition to the Treasury Department, gave the Department of Government Efficiency access to systems with sensitive and private data, in violation of the Privacy Act.
The lawsuit, led by the American Federation of Teachers, is one of several seeking to bar federal agencies from sharing sensitive information with the Department of Government Efficiency — which is not an actual department — as the apparatus and President Donald Trump’s broader administration seek to drastically reduce federal government spending.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, whose temporary restraining order expires March 10, wrote that the groups have shown that the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management “likely violated the Privacy Act by disclosing their personal information to DOGE affiliates without their consent.”
The Office of Personnel Management is the federal agency in charge of human resources and employee management.
Boardman noted that “DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of record that contain some of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive data — Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, and disability status — and their access to this trove of personal information is ongoing.”
“There is no reason to believe their access to this information will end anytime soon because the government believes their access is appropriate.”
However, Boardman declined to include the Treasury Department in the temporary restraining order, citing a federal judge in New York issuing a preliminary injunction Friday that blocks DOGE from accessing the department’s payment systems.
In a Monday statement, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Boardman’s ruling is “a significant decision that puts a firewall between actors whom we believe lack the legitimacy and authority to access Americans’ personal data and are using it inappropriately, without any safeguards.”
The White House, Education Department, Office of Personnel Management and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
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