DOGE blocked from accessing sensitive Social Security records
Giving representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency unlimited access to Social Security records "exposes a wide fissure in the foundation" of the agency entrusted with some of Americans’ most sensitive information, a federal judge said on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander noted that DOGE’s mission of identifying fraud is "laudable," but she said giving the group unlimited access to information – including medical records, information about children, and financial records – betrays a fundamental commitment the government has made to citizens.

"For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation," she wrote.
Judge Hollander specifically blocked the members of DOGE -- 11 of whom have been detailed to the SSA -- from accessing any record containing personally identifiable information, ordering that any materials already obtained that identifies individual taxpayers must be destroyed. She also blocked members of DOGE from installing any software on computer systems maintained by the SSA or altering any SSA computers.
In limited cases, she said that members of DOGE can access “discrete, particularized, and non-anonymized data” if they get written permission and explain why the information is necessary.
Last month, Hollander temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing some materials maintained by the SSA, and her order Thursday extends that order and allows the Trump administration to appeal.
-ABC News' Peter Charalambous







