Judge Blocks Opm, Education Department From Sharing Personal Info With Doge

A federal judge has barred the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management — the government’s massive HR department — from sharing sensitive information with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” saying the decision to grant DOGE access appears to breach federal privacy laws.

“The continuing, unauthorized disclosure of plaintiffs’ sensitive personal information to DOGE affiliates is irreparable harm that money damages cannot rectify,” U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, a Maryland-based appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote Monday in a 33-page ruling granting a two-week restraining order.

The order is the most wide-ranging block on DOGE’s activities to date and bars OPM, the government’s HR department, from sharing federal employees’ personal information with DOGE, as well as information related to student borrowers. It came in response to a lawsuit brought by federal employee unions, student loan recipients and veterans who receive government benefits. The judge’s order formally applies only to them, but in practice it appears likely to serve as an across-the-board ban on DOGE’s access to data OPM or the Education Department hold about individuals.

“DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of record that contain some of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive data — Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, and disability status — and their access to this trove of personal information is ongoing,” the judge wrote, describing this access as a potentially risky breach.

Boardman’s ruling centers on the requirement that government officials who access sensitive employee and beneficiary information have a “need-to-know” basis for doing so. She said the government had fallen short of showing why DOGE officials needed access to that information, but will have additional opportunities to prove it as the lawsuit plays out.

Unless overturned by a higher court, the order could be highly disruptive to Musk’s team as it executes the Trump administration’s plans to reshape the federal workforce through government-wide initiatives, like the message sent to federal workers over the weekend. Musk demanded that all U.S. government employees submit an email to explain what they worked on over the last week. Multiple cabinet officials and agency leaders quickly encouraged employees not to respond, for now, to the Musk-led directive amid operational security concerns and questions about the implications of the exercise.

Boardman opted not to extend her restraining order to records held by the Treasury Department, noting that another judge has already blocked DOGE personnel from accessing those databases, which contain details on billions of federal government financial transactions.