Another federal judge is blocking the Trump administration from looking for waste, fraud and abuse. Color me shocked.
This time, an Obama appointee is blocking DOGE from “unfettered access to Americans’ personally identifiable information”, saying that DOGE is engaged in a fishing expedition.
WELL OF COURSE! How else are they going to find waste, fraud and abuse if they don’t look for it!
Here’s the full report via The Hill:
A Maryland federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing millions of Americans’ personal data stored by the Social Security Administration (SSA).
In a scathing, 137-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander sharply questioned DOGE’s unfettered access to Americans’ personally identifiable information. She blocked the advisory group from SSA’s systems containing such data and ordered the deletion of any in DOGE’s possession.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander wrote. “It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”
A coalition of government unions sued over DOGE’s access to SSA, claiming it flouts privacy laws and the agency’s own rules and regulations.
The information in SSA’s records includes Social Security numbers, medical and mental health records, bank data, earnings history and more.
In her ruling, Hollander said the government has “not even attempted” to explain why DOGE needs such sweeping access to Americans’ personal data, instead repeating its refrain that DOGE’s mission to root out fraud and modernize the bureaucracy must not be hindered.
“Its method of doing so is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer,” the judge wrote.
Doesn’t this judge realize that the people who work in DOGE are also employed in the respective departments in which they are working? From the way I understand it, these should be SSA employees who already have access to the information.
I fully expect this to be overturned and quickly when the Trump administration appeals this to the 4th Circuit.