A federal judge appointed by former President Biden is temporarily blocking Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal records at the Department of Education (DoEd) as part of their cost-cutting sweep.
Judge Deborah Boardman of Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a temporary restraining order on Monday against DOGE’s access to records at the DoEd containing personal sensitive information on Americans, including financial data related to federal student loans.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed against the administration alleging that “the agencies unlawfully granted access to records that contain their personally identifiable information (“PII”) to personnel implementing the President’s Executive Orders on the DOGE agenda.”
“Upon consideration of the amended complaint, the TRO briefing, the limited record evidence, oral argument, and the recent decisions of other courts in similar cases, the Court finds that the plaintiffs have met their burden for the extraordinary relief they seek,” the ruling reads. “The TRO is granted in part and denied in part.”
The latest ruling against DOGE comes from the same judge who in early February blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Boardman argued that citizenship is a “national concern that demands a uniform policy.”
As reported by POLITICO:
A federal judge has barred the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management — the government’s massive HR department — from sharing sensitive information with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” saying the decision to grant DOGE access appears to breach federal privacy laws.
“The continuing, unauthorized disclosure of plaintiffs’ sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is irreparable harm that money damages cannot rectify,” U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, a Maryland-based appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote Monday in a 33-page ruling granting a two-week restraining order.
The order is the most wide-ranging block on DOGE’s activities to date and bars OPM, the government’s HR department, from sharing federal employees’ personal information with DOGE, as well as information related to student borrowers. It came in response to a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions, student loan recipients and veterans who receive government benefits. The judge’s order formally applies only to them, but in practice it appears likely to serve as an across-the-board ban on DOGE’s access to data OPM or the Education Department hold about individuals.
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