Today, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Department of Education (ED), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Treasury Department from disclosing the sensitive personal information to employees affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The order covers the named individual plaintiffs and members of the plaintiff organizations in AFT v. Bessent, et al. 

“Today, the Court re-affirmed that DOGE affiliates have not demonstrated a need to access Americans’ highly sensitive and private data to do their jobs. As we make our case in court, this ruling protects Americans’ right to privacy from people who may not have appropriate authority to access it and who may not be using it properly or with adequate safeguards,” said Kristy Parker, Counsel at Protect Democracy, who represents the plaintiffs. 

The Court ruled that the claims from the plaintiffs — including military veterans and unions representing millions of veterans, teachers, scientists, engineers, federal employees — would likely be successful. The plaintiffs argue that ED, OPM, and Treasury violated the Privacy Act by granting DOGE affiliates unauthorized access to systems containing sensitive personal information including Social Security numbers, bank account information, health records, and other private data.

“Every day, when Americans apply for a student loan or financial aid for their kids, they hand over their information to the government in good faith because they expect it to be safeguarded and used only for the purposes it was intended,” said American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten. “Today the court correctly decided to uphold the firewall between their activities and the personal data of tens of millions of people.”

“Today’s ruling continues to solidify that our members, our nation’s veterans and every American has a sacred right to privacy,” said International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM Union) International President Brian Bryant. “The IAM Union will always stand with our allies to protect and defend our members’ rights.”

“Once again, the courts have ruled that Elon Musk and DOGE should not have access to highly sensitive data belonging to American individuals and federal employees,” said National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE) National President Randy Erwin. “Everyone in this country has the right to privacy. NFFE and our allies are committed to protecting that right, especially when our members are at risk of having their information compromised by those who wish to do them harm.”

“IFPTE is pleased with the court’s grant of injunctive relief blocking the federal government from the unauthorized release of the sensitive personally identifiable information of millions of Americans, including IFPTE members employed by the federal government, to DOGE,” said International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) President Mathew Biggs. “As the Court accurately found, Elon Musk and his so-called DOGE have no legitimate right to access the social security numbers, sensitive financial information, home addresses, and even medical records of Federal workers. We applaud the Court’s actions today.”

National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) National President William Shackelford added: “This preliminary injunction protects against the abuse of the personal data of federal employees and retirees, including those who have worked in sensitive and secure positions on behalf of their country, by DOGE affiliates who have no need to access the data to perform their duties.”

In the 68-page ruling, Judge Deborah L. Boardman wrote that “[t]he administrative records [provided by the government] indicate that Education, OPM, and Treasury disclosed records with the plaintiffs’ PII to DOGE affiliates. They also indicate that the DOGE affiliates do not need to know this information to perform their job duties.”  

The Court found that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm without injunctive relief, noting that, “the plaintiffs have shown that DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of records that contain some of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive data – such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, bank information, income and assets, and citizenship status.” The Court further found that “without an injunction, the DOGE affiliates’ access to this trove of personal information will continue,” and that the damage incurred by these ongoing disclosures cannot be rectified by damages.

The preliminary injunction prohibits:

• The Department of Education from disclosing Plaintiffs’ personally identifiable information to any DOGE affiliates.
• The Office of Personnel Management from disclosing Plaintiffs’ personally identifiable information to any OPM employee working principally on the DOGE agenda (with the exception of OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell, OPM Chief Information Officer Greg Hogan, and OPM Chief of Staff Amanda Scales).
• The Treasury Department from disclosing Plaintiffs’ personally identifiable information to DOGE affiliates.

The Department of Justice has filed a notice of its intent to appeal Judge Boardman’s decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

The complete ruling is available here, and the opinion can be found here.

Read more about this case.