A federal judge in Maryland has blocked the Department of Education and the Office of Personnel Management to share the personal information of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Trump administration with the so -called Efficient Department of the Government of Elon Musk.
The United States District Judge, Deborah L. Boardman, issued a temporary restriction order on both agencies and wrote in an opinion that the plaintiffs in the case, which include members of several important unions, showed that the department of Education and OPM “probably violated the privacy law of disseminating their personal information to Dogues affiliates without their consent.”
Boardman wrote that the plaintiffs “fulfilled their burden for the extraordinary relief they are looking for” by clearly demonstrating that “they probably suffer irreparable damage without precautionary relief.”
“Doge affiliates have been given access to registered systems that contain some of the most confidential data of the plaintiffs: social security numbers, birth dates, housing addresses, income and assets, citizenship state and disability status ) And his access to this touch of personal information is ongoing, “he wrote. “There is no reason to believe that your access to this information will end soon because the government believes that its access is appropriate.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the request for comments from NBC News.
“This is a significant decision that puts a firewall between the actors who believe they lack the legitimacy and authority to access the personal data of the Americans and are using it inappropriately, without any protection,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the main plaintiff in the case.
The plaintiffs are unions and membership organizations that represent current and previous federal employees, as well as the federal student loans and six military veterans who have received federal benefits or student loans.
The judge’s opinion pointed out that Dege employees are integrated both in the Department of Education and OPM and said that Doge personnel who have been granted unauthorized access to the registrations of the plaintiffs “could use the information available to create to create an integral image of the plaintiffs “family, professional or financial issues”.
In the Department of Education, for example, Dege Adam Ramada employee and others have had the task of auditing federal student loan programs to find waste, fraud and abuse. The judge, however, said that the government did not show why these employees need access to the plaintiffs of the plaintiffs to carry out that task.
“It may be that, with additional time, the Government can explain why granting such broad access to the personal information of the plaintiffs is necessary for the duxes affiliates in education to do their work, but for now, the record before the court He indicates that he does not need these records in the performance of his duties, “said the judge.
The order that blocks the Department of Education and the OPM to share the personal data of the plaintiffs with Dogs expires on March 10.
As part of the same claim, the plaintiffs also sued the Department of Treasury and his secretary, Scott Besent, but the judge denied the motion of a temporary restriction order to block Doge’s access to their systems, noting that another judge already imposed A restriction order in the Treasury Department.
