The judge rules that doge can keep accessing government data
DoGE Employees Have a Right to Rummage through Government Records: A 68-Year Filtering of the DOGE Privacy Act
In just a few weeks, DOGE staffers have accessed federal employee records at the Office of Personnel Management, government payment data at the Department of the Treasury, data on student loan recipients at the Department of Education, information on disaster victims at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and vast amounts of employment- and workplace-related data at the Department of Labor. White House staffers are pressing the IRS to grant them access to taxpayer records. The acting head of the Social Security Administration resigned in protest of not being given access to the agency’s sensitive personal data.
More than half a dozen lawsuits are attempting to prevent DOGE employees from rummaging through this massive amount of data. One thing they all have in common: They allege that DOGE’s actions violate the Privacy Act of 1974.
The Privacy Act limits how the federal government can gather, use and share information about US citizens and other people.
The law has a number of features, including allowing people to access government records, and allowing people to correct mistakes if they occur, as well as requirements for agencies to protect data from hackers.
The Privacy Act prohibits an agency from disclosing someone’s records—even within the agency—unless that person approves in writing or the agency meets one of the law’s 12 exceptions. Most of the exceptions deal with fairly specific circumstances, such as congressional oversight, law enforcement investigations, court orders, census work, statistical research, and National Archives preservation. Agencies can share records with their own employees who have a need for the record in the performance of their duties or with third parties for a routine use.
Reply to the Comment on Nixon’s “Inside Out” Watergate: How Congress Protected the Information of the Founding Fathers of the United States
Nixon illegally used the government’s powers to investigate, intimidate, and punish his political enemies. He attempted to use the IRS to investigate and target liberal political groups who supported him, as well as the FBI to spy on and harass his political opponents. After Nixon’s resignation over the Watergate scandal, lawmakers sought to prevent future presidents from weaponizing government power.
“Congress must act before sophisticated new systems of information gathering and retention are developed, and before they produce widespread abuses,” North Carolina Democratic senator Sam Ervin said as he introduced one of the bills that inspired the Privacy Act. It is too late for us to fix our mistakes or supply our oversight if we don’t use new complex technologies.
The states still have the opportunity to pursue the case on the merits, and file for a preliminary injunction. It would offer a good chance to stop Musk and the rest of the group from getting access to certain federal agencies.
