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A group of unionists is asking federal courts for an emergency order to prevent Elon Musk’s government efficiency from accessing sensitive social security data for millions of Americans.
The emergency relief claim was filed late Friday in Maryland federal court by the Democracy of the Legal Services Group against the Social Security Administration and its representative committee, Leland Dudek. The union hopes the courts will block Doge’s access to the vast horde of personal data held by the institution.
The filing includes an affidavit from Tiffany Frick. Tiffany Flick is a former senior official at an agency that says career civil servants are trying to protect their data from Doge. “Ignoring our careful privacy systems and processes threatens the security that our Data SSA currently houses millions of Americans,” Flick wrote in court documents.
Karianne Jones, the union’s lawyer and retiree group behind the lawsuit, said it is not entirely clear what access Doge will need to access personal data about taxpayers. However, she said the apparent scope and lack of information about what Doge is looking for means that the potential impact is “huge.”
“Essentially, what you have is Doge is swooping down and bullying their path to accessing personal data for millions of Americans. They can’t explain why they want this data. They can’t really tell you the data they want. They want everything. They want the source code and want to do it without any restrictions,” she said.
The Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to Saturday’s request for comment on the lawsuit filed last month.
Doge’s work in the early stages of the Trump administration led to almost 20 lawsuits. The judges have questioned Doge’s drastic cost-cutting efforts in several cases, with little public information on its staffing and operations. However, judges are not always agreeing that there is an imminent risk to block Doge from the government system.
The Social Security Agency’s overall cuts are prompting questions about the possible impact on the benefits of tens of millions of recipients.
Among the potential changes in agencies are layoffs of more than 10% of the workforce and closures of dozens of offices nationwide. It’s all part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Doge accesses other government databases, including the Treasury Department and the IRS. The Trump administration has said that efforts are generally aimed at eliminating what they claim is a waste of government and fraud.
On Friday, a federal judge in Washington refused to block Doge employees from access to a financial system that contains sensitive personal data for millions of people. US District Judge Colleen Coller Cotery acknowledged privacy concerns regarding the job. Doge is still restricted by another court order in New York.
Additionally, the February agreement between the Human Resources Administration and the IRS states that Doge employee Gavin Kliger will be allowed to access the IRS system, but not taxpayer personal information.
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