Supreme Court rules DOGE can access Social Security information
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled the Department of Government Efficiency could access Social Security systems with sensitive information.
The ruling blocked a lower Maryland court order that kept DOGE from seeking certain Social Security information due to federal privacy laws.
The data from the U.S. Social Security Administration includes Social Security numbers, medical information, citizenship records, school records, and tax returns for millions of Americans.
"We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work," the court said in an unsigned order.
The six conservative justices voted for the ruling and the three liberal justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
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Jackson said the ruling created "grave privacy risks" for millions of Americans by giving "unfettered data access to DOGE regardless — despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access."
The ruling came soon after DOGE's former head, Elon Musk, left the government and a day after he and President Donald Trump traded personal attacks that were sparked by a disagreement over the president's "Big, Beautiful" bill.
DOGE's path forward after Musk's exit isn't clear, but Trump and Musk have both previously said the newly-created agency's work would continue.
The Trump administration has said DOGE needs access to Social Security information to continue its core task of rooting out government waste.
Musk has previously called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," and insisted on eliminating waste in the program.
Maryland U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander previously ruled that DOGE’s efforts with Social Security were a "fishing expedition" based on "little more than suspicion" of fraud. She did allow some access, however, to anonymous data for DOGE workers who had gone through background checks.
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An appeals court didn't immediately lift the block, with dissenting conservative judges saying there’s no evidence that DOGE has done any "targeted snooping" or exposed personal information.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.