Supreme Court restores DOGE’s access to sensitive Social Security data

The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a lower court order blocking the Social Security Administration from granting access to the agency’s sensitive data to affiliates of the Department of Government Efficiency.

The Supreme Court on Friday lifted a lower court order blocking the Social Security Administration from granting access to the agency’s sensitive data to affiliates of the Department of Government Efficiency. The ruling, a win for the Trump administration, means that DOGE will be able to access data on millions of Americans as part of what it has described as an effort to rout out fraud and “modernize outdated systems,” but that critics say appears to be a fishing expedition. “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 wrote in an unsigned order. Three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented. The decision will “hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans,” Jackson wrote. “The government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now – before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE’s access is lawful,” she added.