Pesky Judges
Federal courts on Thursday dealt two blows to the Trump administration’s plans, blocking the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) access to Social Security data and the deportation of a Georgetown University fellow.
DOGE gets another nope: In Maryland, a federal court blocked DOGE employees from accessing certain Social Security Administration (SSA) data, for now.
“The American public may well applaud and support the Trump Administration’s mission to root out fraud, waste, and bloat from federal agencies, including SSA, to the extent it exists,” wrote Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander in her opinion. But “the DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”
“Ironically, the identity of these DOGE affiliates has been concealed because defendants are concerned that the disclosure of even their names would expose them to harassment and thus invade their privacy,” Hollander said, adding:
The defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans whose SSA records were made available to the DOGE affiliates, without their consent, and which contain sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information… [which] means information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, either alone or when combined with other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.
The judge’s order also makes it uncomfortably clear how much data the SSA has on all of us—a disturbing thought no matter who has access to the information. It includes “Social Security numbers, personal medical and mental health records, driver’s license information, bank account data, tax information, earnings history, birth and marriage records, home and work addresses, school records, immigration and/or naturalization records, health care providers’ contact information, family court records, and employment and employer records,” Judge Hollander writes.
Amazingly, the broad ruling may also prevent any SSA employees from accessing this data:
Acting Social Security Administration commissioner Leland Dudek told Bloomberg News that Thursday’s temporary restraining order was so broad in barring data access to “DOGE affiliates” that it could apply to any Social Security employee—including the agency’s IT staff and anti-fraud team. Therefore, he said, he would follow the order by blocking SSA employees from the agency’s computer systems—and ask the judge to clarify her order.
Suri can stay (for now): Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow and Indian national who was in the U.S. legally, was detained Monday by immigration authorities who apprehended him at his home. The government is accusing him of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist” (a vague standard if there ever was one). A deportation hearing is scheduled for May 6.
“Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible. And if an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar,” Suri lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, said.
He has filed a habeas corpus petition seeking to free Suri from detention. Documents filed with the court noted that the government has not actually charged Suri with any crimes
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