Supreme Court says DOGE can access Social Security Administration data, for now

The Supreme Court gave President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency access to Social Security records in a ruling setting aside, for now, a lower court’s blockade.

In a separate decision, the justices ordered a different court to revisit how much information DOGE needs to turn over in legal discovery, saying the executive branch deserves more deference than the judge in that case showed.

The twin actions are the latest in a growing series of wins for Mr. Trump at the high court, which has also largely backed his firing powers and his ability to roll back Biden-era immigration policies.

In the Social Security Administration case, DOGE argued it needed access to the data to weed out fraud and erroneous payments from the massive spending program.

The justices said DOGE is likely to prevail when the case is completed, so it can collect the data now from the Social Security Administration.

“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 said in an unsigned order.

SSA holds sensitive data on nearly everyone in the country, including school records, salary details and medical information.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, an Obama appointee to the court in Maryland, had ruled that DOGE’s access violated the Privacy Act.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Biden nominee, dissented from Friday’s ruling.

She said allowing DOGE access creates “grave privacy risks” for millions of Americans by giving “unfettered data access to DOGE regardless — despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards, and all before we know for sure whether federal law countenances such access.”

She added, “But, once again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined Justice Jackson’s opinion, and fellow Obama-appointed Justice Elena Kagan said she also would have ruled against the administration.

The Trump administration says DOGE needs access to carry out its mission of targeting waste and fraud in the federal government.

The court also granted a request to halt a lower court order green-lighting discovery of certain material from DOGE through the Freedom of Information Act. That information was sought by the left-leaning advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The high court sent the issue back to the lower court to narrow the discovery order, as the Trump administration has argued DOGE isn’t subject to FOIA requests.

In the discovery dispute, CREW sought documents and depositions to assess whether DOGE is a government agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

The Trump administration argues that the DOGE, as an advisory body to the president without independent decision-making powers, is largely exempt from FOIA.

The Justice Department said in granting legal discovery, the lower court judge was giving CREW access to much the same material it was seeking in the FOIA request.

President Trump created DOGE through executive order. It was led until last week by billionaire Elon Musk, who has suggested the Social Security Administration is rife with fraud.

DOGE, since its creation, has drawn roughly two dozen legal challenges, according to The Associated Press.

Friday’s Social Security ruling drew feverish denunciations from congressional Democrats.

“Common sense suggests that Elon Musk’s DOGE minions should not have unfettered access to the personal records of over 70 million Americans,” said Reps. Richard Neal of Massachusetts and John Larson of Connecticut, senior Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Social Security.

They said the decision fuels speculation that Mr. Trump wants to “dismantle Social Security from within.”

Mr. Trump has always said he wants to keep the social safety net intact, but during his address to Congress earlier this year he did highlight millions of Americans listed in Social Security’s files despite being way older than 100.