A Federal appeals court has denied the Trump administration’s request to lift a court order that restricts the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) ability to access Americans’ data held by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled 9-6 on April 30 to deny the administration’s request to put on hold on a lower court’s preliminary injunction that is blocking unfettered DOGE access to the data.
Judge Ellen Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction last month to block DOGE from accessing certain SSA data after a group of labor unions and retirees sued the Trump administration. They claimed that DOGE was violating privacy laws and creating information security risks by accessing that data.
The preliminary injunction allows DOGE to access taxpayer data that’s been redacted or has had any personally identifiable information removed, as long as staffers undergo training and background checks.
The order also directs DOGE to delete all non-anonymized taxpayer data that they may have gained access to through SSA systems.
In issuing the injunction, Hollander said that the plaintiffs would likely succeed in their claim that DOGE had violated privacy laws in its work at SSA and had caused “irreparable harm.”
“The objective to address fraud, waste, mismanagement, and bloat is laudable, and one that the American public presumably applauds and supports,” wrote Hollander in her 148-page memorandum explaining the decision. “However, the issue here is not the work that DOGE or the Agency want to do. The issue is about how they want to do the work.”
“For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records. This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation,” she added.
Following the appeals court’s decision, the Trump administration’s options include asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the matter.