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