The Daily Populous Friday March 21st, 2025 morning edition
Authored by cnbc.com and submitted by Somecrazyguy1234

A sign in front of the entrance of the Security Administration's main campus on March 19, 2025 in Woodlawn, Maryland.

A federal judge Thursday issued a temporary restraining order barring Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency team from having access to personally identifiable information from the Social Security Administration.

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in a scathing ruling accused DOGE of launching a "fishing expedition" at the Social Security agency and failing to provide any reason why it needed to access vast swaths of Americans' personal and private data.

Hollander said the "defendants, with so called experts on the DOGE Team" never identify or articulate a reason why DOGE needs "unlimited access to SSA's entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government."

The order in U.S. District Court in Baltimore blocks the Social Security Administration, acting Commissioner Leland Dudek and Chief Information Officer Michael Russo, as well as all related agents and employees working with them, from granting access to any system containing personally identifiable information.

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Per the lawsuit, personally identifiable information is defined as information that can be used to identify an individual, either on its own or when combined with other information. That includes Social Security numbers, medical provider information, medical and mental health treatment records, employer and employee payment records, employee earnings, addresses, bank records and tax information.

The judge also ordered the DOGE team members and affiliates to delete all non-anonymized personally identifiable information in their possession or control that they have accessed "directly or indirectly" since Jan. 20.

The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of unions and retirees including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of Teachers.

In a statement, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields slammed Hollander as a "radical leftist" and accused her of "abusing the system to try and sabotage" Trump's agenda.

"The President will continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people goes into effect," Fields said.

"We will work to comply with the court order," a Social Security spokesperson told CNBC via email.

Freya_gleamingstar on March 20th, 2025 at 20:50 UTC »

"Hollander, noting the affiliates of DOGE have kept their identities hidden, wrote, “ironically, the identity of these DOGE affiliates has been concealed because defendants are concerned that the disclosure of even their names would expose them to harassment and thus invade their privacy.”

A-fucking-men

fxkatt on March 20th, 2025 at 20:39 UTC »

Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in a scathing ruling accused DOGE of launching a “fishing expedition” at the Social Security agency and failing to provide any reason why it needed to access vast swaths of Americans’ personal and private data.

Hurrah!! She attacked DOGE for insisting on the total secrecy and privacy of their operatives while granting zilch such recognition of the tens of millions personal records they demand access to.

Snipshow777 on March 20th, 2025 at 20:37 UTC »

Throw the book at these little mid 20s shits. They shouldn’t be anywhere near the government.