Appeals court lifts some limits on DOGE access at US agencies

Zoe Tillman, Bloomberg News on Apr 7, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency staff will be able to access personal information of millions of U.S. union members at the Education Department and the government’s human resources arm under a federal appeals court order.

In a 2-1 decision Monday, an appellate panel lifted a Maryland judge’s March injunction while the legal fight goes forward. The lower court’s order had also restricted DOGE’s access at the Treasury Department, but a New York judge’s injunction covering data at that agency remains in effect for now.

The latest order from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a boost for the Trump administration in its rapid push to empower Musk and his DOGE teams to get broad access to agency systems, including records with Americans’ private information.

Kristy Parker, special counsel at Protect Democracy, which is representing challengers in the Maryland case, said in a statement that they believe the lower court judge “was correct that the defendants are violating the Privacy Act in a way that causes ongoing harm to the plaintiffs and we look forward to making that case to the 4th circuit.”

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a March 24 decision, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman found that the unions were likely to succeed in arguing that the government violated U.S. privacy laws by giving DOGE-affiliated employees access to the records.

She wrote at the time that agency officials were taking a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach in deciding what databases of information DOGE-affiliated employees should be allowed to see.

On the appeals court, Judges G. Steven Agee and Julius Richardson — appointed by former President George W. Bush and Trump, respectively — voted to halt Boardman’s order. It wasn’t enough for the district judge to find that the unions could prove a “concrete injury” by showing “abstract access to personal information,” Agee wrote.

The third member of the panel, Judge Robert King, confirmed during the Clinton administration, said that he would have denied the government’s request and kept Boardman’s injunction in place. He wrote that the case involved “some of the most sensitive personal information imaginable” that Americans had entrusted to federal agencies to keep safe.

“Respectfully — and with all the energy an old judge can muster — I dissent,” King wrote.

Other lawsuits are pending over DOGE access to information at the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management, but there are currently no other court limits on what DOGE-affiliated staff can see. Last week, a different federal judge in New York denied the government’s bid to toss a lawsuit over DOGE’s access at OPM.

The case is American Federation of Teachers v. Bessent, 25-1282, 4th Circuit.