OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:53 PM – Friday, June 6, 2025
On Friday, the Supreme Court authorized officials from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to obtain data from the Social Security Administration.
The High Court granted an emergency petition submitted by GOP officials seeking to overturn a liberal federal judge’s injunction issued in Maryland.
In a win for the Trump, an unsigned order stated that members of the DOGE team assigned to the Social Security Administration must be granted “access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.”
The legal challenge to DOGE’s actions was brought by the left-wing advocacy organization Democracy Forward, representing two labor unions — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the American Federation of Teachers — along with the Alliance for Retired Americans.
The group issued a joint statement aimed at inciting fear and leveling unsubstantiated accusations against the GOP administration.
“This is a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people,” the groups said in a statement. “This ruling will enable President Trump and DOGE’s affiliates to steal Americans’ private and personal data.”
Nonetheless, the White House swiftly praised the “common sense” ruling.
“The Supreme Court allowing the Trump Administration to carry out common sense efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize government information systems is a huge victory for the rule of law,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, who was appointed by Democrat President Barack Obama, previously ruled that the Department of Energy (DOGE) had no legitimate need to access the specific data in question. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, declined to overturn Hollander’s ruling, prompting the Trump administration to file an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court.
In a separate but concurrent ruling involving DOGE, the Supreme Court also granted another petition from the Trump administration.
That decision temporarily permits the administration to shield DOGE from compliance with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking access to thousands of pages of internal documents.
This action formalizes a provisional order issued by Chief Justice John Roberts on May 23rd, which paused lower court rulings while the Supreme Court deliberated on the appropriate course of action. The Court also instructed lower courts to narrow the range of materials subject to disclosure.
This means the government is temporarily relieved from complying with document requests and from permitting the deposition of DOGE Administrator Amy Gleason, as previously ordered by a lower court, while the litigation remains ongoing.
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