WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans, calling their work there a “fishing expedition.”
The order also requires the team to delete any personally identifiable data in their possession.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander in Maryland found that the team got broad access to sensitive information at the Social Security Administration to search for fraud with little justification.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” she wrote.
The order does allow DOGE staffers to access to data that's been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and background checks.
“To be sure, rooting out possible fraud, waste, and mismanagement in the SSA is in the public interest. But, that does not mean that the government can flout the law to do so,” Hollander wrote.
The Trump administration says DOGE is targeting waste in the federal government. Musk has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud, describing it as a “ ponzi scheme ” and insisting that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.
The ruling, which could be challenged on appeal, comes in a lawsuit filed by labor unions, retirees and the advocacy group Democracy Forward. They argued that DOGE access violates privacy laws and presents serious information security risks. The lawsuit included a declaration from a recently departed Social Security official who saw the DOGE team sweep into the agency said she is deeply worried about sensitive information being exposed.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DOGE detailed a 10-person team of federal employees at the SSA, seven of whom were granted read-only access to agency systems or personally identifiable information, according to court documents.
The staffers were all federal employees allowed to access the data under federal privacy laws, the government argued, and there's no evidence that any personal data was improperly shared.
The Justice Department also said that DOGE access doesn’t deviate significantly from normal practices inside the agency, where employees are routinely allowed to search its databases. But attorneys for the plaintiffs called the access unprecedented.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called the ruling a “major win for working people and retirees across the country.”
Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, said that “the court recognized the real and immediate dangers of DOGE’s reckless actions and took action to stop it.”
DOGE has gotten at least some access to other government databases, including at the Treasury Department and IRS.
At SSA, DOGE staffers swept into the agency days after Trump’s inauguration and pressed for a software engineer to quickly get access to data systems that are normally carefully restricted even within the government, a former official said in court documents.
The team appeared to be searching for fraud based on inaccuracies and misunderstandings, according to Tiffany Flick, the former acting chief of staff to the acting commissioner.
Hollander, 75, who is based in Baltimore and was nominated by President Barack Obama, is the latest judge to consider a DOGE related case.
The team has drawn nearly two dozen lawsuits. Earlier this week another Maryland judge found that DOGE's dismantling of United States Agency for International Development was likely unconstitutional.
While other judges have raised questions about DOGE’s sweeping cost-cutting efforts, they have not always agreed any risks are imminent enough to block the team from government systems.
Associated Press writers Chris Megerian and Lea Skene in Baltimore contributed reporting.
Demonstrators gather outside of the Edward A. Garmatz United States District Courthouse in Baltimore, on Friday, March 14, 2025, before a hearing regarding the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Social Security data. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Demonstrators gather outside of the Edward A. Garmatz United States District Courthouse in Baltimore, on Friday, March 14, 2025, before a hearing regarding the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Social Security data. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — Israel said it would respond “severely” to an attack from Lebanon after rockets were fired into northern Israel Saturday morning, a day after it vowed to increase the intensity of its operations in Gaza.
Israel's army said the intercepted rockets were targeting the Israeli town of Metula. This is the second time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel since December, sparking concern about whether the fragile ceasefire with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah would hold.
Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into an all-out war in September as Israel carried out massive waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant group’s senior leaders. The fighting killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis.
Under the ceasefire reached in November, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January. The deadline was then extended to Feb. 18 by agreement between Lebanon and Israel.
But since then, Israel’s remained in five locations in Lebanon located across from communities in northern Israel and has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah targets. Lebanon has appealed to the U.N. to pressure Israel to fully withdraw from the country.
On Saturday, Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said the country will not allow Lebanon to fire into Israeli communities. “We promised security to the Galilee communities and that is exactly what will happen,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah.
In a statement, Lebanon's Prime Minister, Nawaf Salam, asked the Lebanese military to take all necessary measures in the south, but said the country did not want to return to war.
The strikes come a day after Israel said it would carry out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity” until Hamas frees the 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive.
Israel's military said Friday its forces were planning fresh assaults into three neighborhoods west of Gaza City and issued warnings on social media for Palestinians to evacuate the areas.
Also on Friday, Israel blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn territory. The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, accusing Hamas militants of operating on-site. Turkey, which helped build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as a base.
Around 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel relaunched the war earlier this week. Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, aiming to pressure Hamas over ceasefire negotiations.
The international community has condemned the resumed attacks. In a statement Friday, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany called Israel's strikes in Gaza a dramatic step backward. “We are appalled by the civilian casualties and urgently call for an immediate return to a ceasefire," they said in a joint statement.
The attack by Hamas-led militants in 2023, killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been freed in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were militants but says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporter Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
People walking surrounded by buildings destroyed during the Israeli air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
FILE - Ronen Bar, chief of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security agency, attends a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool photo via AP, File)
In this image made from a video released by the Israeli Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement Tuesday, March 18, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)
Palestinians carry bundles of wood as they walk along a beach road leaving northern Gaza during the renewed Israeli army offensive in the Gaza Strip, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians displaced by the Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip sit in a makeshift tent camp inside a landfill in central Gaza Strip, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Israelis attend a rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, and calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Demonstrators block a road during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service, in Jerusalem on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians including children who were killed by an Israeli army airstrike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza city, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A Palestinian man carries the body of his 11 years old daughter Aya Al-Samri who was killed by an Israeli army airstrike, during her funeral at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza city, Friday, March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings and other items, move between southern and northern Gaza along a beach road away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Displaced Palestinians, carrying their belongings, wood and other items, move between southern and northern Gaza along a beach road away from the areas where the Israeli army is operating after Israel's renewed offensive in the Gaza Strip, in the outskirts of Gaza City, Friday March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
