Trump brings DOGE fight over access to Social Security data to Supreme Court
CNN
President Donald Trump’s administration urged the Supreme Court on Friday to allow Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security Administration data on hundreds of millions of Americans.
President Donald Trump’s administration urged the Supreme Court on Friday to allow Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security Administration data on hundreds of millions of Americans. The latest emergency appeal to reach the high court during Trump’s second term puts DOGE front and center before the justices and is the first dispute to reach the Supreme Court that deals with the access to sensitive government databases that Musk affiliates have demanded. “The government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs,” the administration said in its appeal. But lower court judges have said that at least some of the information DOGE has requested is tightly controlled even within the Social Security Administration itself. The appeal followed a divided decision from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday that continued to block DOGE from accessing the information. The case was filed with Chief Justice John Roberts, who handles emergency matters rising from the 4th Circuit, though he will likely refer the matter to the full court. Roberts has ordered the groups challenging DOGE to respond to the administration’s appeal by May 12. In the appeals court’s opinion, US Circuit Judge Robert King wrote that the data DOGE was seeking exceeded what “all but the few most experienced and trusted” at the administration itself are permitted to review. Access to the data, the Clinton appointee wrote, “contravened SSA policy and practices of access limitations and separation of duties.”
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