A sign in front of the entrance of the Security Administration’s main campus on March 19, 2025 in Woodlawn, Maryland.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images
A federal judge Thursday issued a temporary restraining order barring Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency team from getting access to personally identifiable information from the Social Security Administration.
Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in a scathing ruling accused DOGE of launching a “fishing expedition” at the Social Security agency and failing to provide any reason why it needed to access vast swaths of Americans’ personal and private data.
The order in U.S. District Court in Baltimore blocks the Social Security Administration, acting commissioner Leland Dudek and chief information officer Michael Russo, as well as all related agents and employees working with them, from granting access to any system containing personally identifiable information.
Per the lawsuit, personally identifiable information is defined as information that can be used to identify an individual, either on its own or when combined with other information.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan and Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
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