A federal judge blocked Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing millions of Americans’ private information at three federal agencies on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman found that the Trump administration likely violated federal privacy laws when it granted DOGE access to “personally identifiable information” at the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Education (DOE), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
A coalition of union organizations representing about 2 million people had sued the agencies for giving DOGE access to their data without consent.
In a 68-page ruling, Boardman cited the Privacy Act of 1974, which put strict limits on data that government agencies can share.
“Congress’s concern back then was that ‘every detail of our personal lives can be assembled instantly for use by a single bureaucrat or institution,’” she wrote. “No matter how important or urgent the President’s DOGE agenda may be, federal agencies must execute it in accordance with the law. That likely did not happen in this case.”
The preliminary injunction follows a temporary restraining order Boardman issued in February blocking DOGE from accessing sensitive information at the OPM and Education Department.
Musk’s DOGE has pushed for broad access to government databases amid its crusade to cut government spending but has suffered many legal setbacks in the previous weeks. On Thursday, another judge blocked the billionaire’s team from accessing personal data at the Social Security Administration.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander wrote.
