The Government’s Department of Efficiency Approach to identify fraud in the Social Security Administration “is the same as hitting flies with Palu Godam,” said a federal judge Thursday, blocking unlimited doge access to sensitive agent data.
In a Decision of 137 pagesUS District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the Trump government never justified the need to access data – which they thought was very important to identify alleged fraud – and the possibility of violating several federal laws in doing so.
“The Doge team is basically involved in the fishing expedition in SSA, to look for fraud epidemics, based on a little more than suspicion. This has launched a proverbial needle search in a straw pile, without concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in a pile of straw,” he wrote.
Elon Musk looked at the meeting day with House Republicans to discuss the Government Efficiency Department (DOGE) at Capitol Hill in Washington, March 5, 2025.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
The judge’s order blocks the agency from providing doge access to a system that contains personal information that can be identified personally and the order of Doge members to destroy any data they have identifying individual taxpayers. However, the judge’s decision allows the Doge to continue to allow access to the data being carried out from the agency.
According to Hollander, the decision to provide doge “Unlimited Access to the entire SSA Notes System” endangers sensitive and personal information of millions of Americans, risking information including social security numbers, credit card information, medical and mental health records, inpatient records, marriages and birth certificates, and bank information.
“The government has not even tried to explain why the approach that is more adapted, measurable, titration is not in accordance with the task,” he wrote. “On the contrary, the government only repeats the spell of its need to modernize the system and reveal fraud. The method of doing it is tantamount to hitting flies with Palu Godam.”
Two people entered the Social Security Administration Office in the suburbs of Detroit, March 7, 2025.
Jim West/UCG/Universal Image Group via Getty Images
The lawsuit that challenged DOGE access was filed last month by two national trade unions and advocacy groups who argued that DOGE access violated the Privacy Law and Administrative Procedure Law. In a statement to ABC News, the President of the American Federation, Regency and City Employees celebrated the decision as “a great victory for workers and retirees throughout the country.”
“The court sees that Elon Musk and his lattens who do not meet the requirements to bring great danger to social security and illegally access millions of American data,” AfScme President Lee Saunders said in a statement.
In his decision, the judge also showed the irony that Doge had accessed the sensitive information of millions of Americans while the identity of Doge employees who worked at SSA had been hidden due to privacy reasons.
“Defense does not seem to share the concern of privacy for millions of Americans whose SSA records are available for DOGE affiliates, without their consent,” he wrote.