Supreme Court Allows Trump’s DOGE Unit Access to Social Security Data Despite Privacy Concerns
In a sharply divided decision on Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data involving millions of Americans.
This ruling overturns an earlier district court order that restricted DOGE’s ability to access such records.
The Supreme Court’s brief, unsigned order stated, “SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.” The ruling clears the way for DOGE staff to review non-redacted SSA records to carry out their mandate of identifying and eliminating government waste.
However, the decision drew sharp dissent from the Court’s liberal justices. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned of the “grave privacy risks for millions of Americans” posed by the ruling. “Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, bank-account numbers, medical records — all of that, and more, is in the mix,” Justice Jackson emphasized.
She criticized the Court for granting “unfettered access” to this highly sensitive, non-anonymized data before lower courts have had the chance to evaluate whether DOGE’s access complies with the law.
The controversy traces back to an April ruling by District Judge Ellen Hollander, who barred DOGE personnel from accessing personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers and medical records.
Judge Hollander allowed only access to redacted or anonymized data, provided DOGE staff had undergone rigorous background checks and training on federal privacy laws and regulations.
The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of unions representing SSA employees, arguing that the agency had improperly allowed DOGE, a unit created by the Trump administration to slash billions in government spending, unauthorized access to sensitive information.
At the time, DOGE was led by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose relationship with President Trump has since soured publicly.
The Trump administration has frequently clashed with the judiciary since the president’s return to office, expressing frustration at court rulings that have blocked or delayed several of his executive orders on various issues.
