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A federal judge in Maryland found that scrutiny of the agency’s sensitive information systems by Elon Musk’s team appeared to violate federal privacy laws.
May 2, 2025Updated 6:23 p.m. ET
The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let members of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have access to sensitive records of the Social Security Administration.
“This emergency application,” D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, wrote, “presents a now-familiar theme: a district court has issued sweeping injunctive relief without legal authority to do so, in ways that inflict ongoing, irreparable harm on urgent federal priorities and stymie the executive branch’s functions.”
The administration has filed a barrage of such applications in recent weeks, including one in an immigration case on Thursday. Several of them await decisions from the justices, who are also set to hear arguments on May 15 on the scope of permissible injunctions in challenges to President Trump’s efforts to do away with birthright citizenship.
Mr. Trump and his allies have complained bitterly about lower court judges who have blocked his initiatives, including by issuing injunctions that apply nationwide.
Judge Ellen L. Hollander, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, imposed strict conditions last month on access to the records in light of the agency’s “abiding commitment to the privacy and confidentiality of the personal information entrusted to it by the American people.”
Judge Hollander said the agency could provide members of the DOGE team “with access to redacted or anonymized data and records,” but only after they received training on privacy laws and policies, were subjected to background investigations and satisfied other requirements.
