Supreme Court grants DOGE access to confidential Social Security data
The decision was issued by a brief, unsigned order, as is often the case with emergency requests.
U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court authorized this Friday for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access confidential records of the Social Security Administration. The decision was issued in a brief, unsigned order, as is often the case with emergency requests.
In a second decision issued the same day, the court again favored DOGE by ruling, in another unsigned order, that the department does not have to turn over, at least for now, certain internal documents that had been requested by a citizen watchdog group promoting transparency in government.
Access justified by fight against fraud, administration says
The Trump administration had defended DOGE's access to the files by asserting that it was necessary to root out waste, detect fraud and modernize the agency's operations. But the move was challenged by federal unions and privacy organizations, such as the Democracy Forward Foundation, which filed lawsuits to block it.
The plaintiffs argued that this is extremely sensitive information and that sharing it with an outside team linked to the private sector violates personal data protection laws.
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