Federal judge blocks DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury records

A federal judge temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records containing personal information like Social Security numbers early this morning, reports Inner City Press.

The order is in response to a lawsuit filed yesterday in New York’s Southern District Court. The suit alleges that the administration exceeded its authority, broke the US Administrative Procedures Act, and violated the US Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine when it granted DOGE access to the Treasury’s federal payments system.

District Judge Paul A. Engelmeyer’s order now prohibits the Trump administration ”from granting access to all political appointees, special government employees, and government employees detailed from an agency outside the Treasury Department, to any Treasury Department payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees.”

Engelmeyer also orders that those prohibited from accessing the records must “immediately destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems” since January 20th, 2025. A hearing is scheduled for February 14th.

In a press release announcing the lawsuit Friday, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit, explained:

President Trump does not have the power to give away Americans’ private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress. Musk and DOGE have no authority to access Americans’ private information and some of our country’s most sensitive data.

Attorneys General from these other states joined James in the lawsuit: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

The lawsuit is one of several levied against Trump’s administration since he took office, including a separate one over DOGE’s access to Treasury records filed on February 3rd. Responding to other legal action, federal judges have also blocked Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship, with one calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”