Trump admin asks SCOTUS to weigh in on DOGE access to Social Security data

The Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access Social Security Administration (SSA) information on millions of Americans.

The request comes after several federal judges intervened with DOGE's attempts to audit the SSA to weed out fraud and wasteful spending. But critics claim that DOGE's access would flout privacy laws and the agency’s own rules and regulations.  

The emergency appeal is directly related to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on Wednesday that the data DOGE wanted exceeds what “all but the few most experienced and trusted” at the agency are allowed to review, CNN reported.

The administration countered that DOGE needs access to continue working on its goal of reforming the government and combating fraud. 

“The district court is forcing the executive branch to stop employees charged with modernizing government information systems from accessing the data in those systems because, in the court’s judgment, those employees do not ‘need’ such access,” the administration wrote in the appeal. 

“The injunction involving the SSA does not merely halt the executive branch’s critically important efforts to improve its information-technology infrastructure and eliminate waste," it continued. "District court control of decisions about internal access to information also constitutes inappropriate superintendence of a coequal branch.”

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.