U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Ketelly issued an interim order Thursday blocking Elon Musk and any additional Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, employees from accessing sensitive U.S. Treasury data while the case brought Monday by two labor unions and an advocacy group for retired union members proceeds.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the groups, the Alliance for Retired Americans, the American Federation of Government Employees and the Service Employees International Union, agreed to the interim order, according to Public Citizen Litigation Group.
The groups requested a temporary restraining order against Treasury and Bessent.
Who Gets Access
Kollar-Ketelly's order states that access will not be granted to anyone except for Tom Krause and Marko Elez, who are special government employees, and regular government employees who need access to do their jobs, according to Public Citizen Litigation Group, which brought the lawsuit on behalf of the three groups.
Elez and Krause will have read-only access, the order states, and the access is limited as needed for performance of their duties.
"The interim order helps protect the privacy of the tens of millions of Americans who receive benefits from or make payments to the U.S. Government, until a full legal review can be undertaken," Public Citizen Litigation Group said in a statement.
“We’re pleased that the court acted quickly to put in safeguards to protect people’s personal information until the facts are sorted out," said Nandan Joshi, an attorney with the group. "Americans who rely on Social Security and similar programs should be able to trust their government to handle their sensitive information with the utmost care. No one should ever face having their personal information used for improper purposes without their consent, which is why we’ve brought this case.”
The order comes just as Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee demanded answers from Bessent on whether Musk and his team of "hackers have unlawful and unjust access to confidential taxpayer data protected by Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, and the power to delay or disrupt the 2025 filing season."
Elon Musk. Credit: Trevor Cokley/U.S. Air Force via Wikimedia Commons
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