(NewsNation) — An appeals court Tuesday blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from obtaining sensitive Social Security data after the Trump administration filed a restraining order in the case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit dismissed the government’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction, and the case will proceed in the district court.
On March 20, a federal judge temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE from Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling its work there a “fishing expedition.”
Trump to unveil ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, raising trade tensions
That order also required the team to delete any personally identifiable data in their possession.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security Administration to search for fraud with little justification.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” she wrote.
The order allows DOGE staffers to access data that’s been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable if they undergo training and background checks.
The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste in the federal government. Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud, describing it as a “Ponzi scheme” and insisting that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.
