Unions, student groups and others affected by Elon Musk and his allies gathering data through federal computer systems are calling the increasing presence inside these systems “unauthorized access” that the federal government must cut off as a means of protecting individuals’ privacy and the security of the federal networks.
In one lawsuit, both Musk and his opponents reached a temporary agreement that limits the access DOGE, a cost-cutting effort established by President Donald Trump, has to federal data. On Thursday, a judge approved that temporary agreement, which will grant two DOGE employees access to data at the Department of Treasury, but only on a read-only basis, and no other DOGE employees may get access.
Musk and many of his allies who work for DOGE or have been appointed to details at Treasury and elsewhere in the executive branch enjoy the title of
Although the White House has claimed Musk is an SGE, and although legal filings by the executive branch indicate that his allies working in Treasury and elsewhere also have this SGE status, Democrats and others have questioned the legal authority of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others to grant Musk and his team at DOGE access to federal computer networks — regardless of whether the access is read-only.
Student loan data
On Friday, the focus of lawsuits and statements questioning DOGE activities turned to the Department of Education. According to a lawsuit by the University of California Student Association, acting Secretary of the Department of Education Denise Carter acted unlawfully by granting DOGE employees access to student loan data.
The data includes sensitive personal and financial information for 42 million borrowers, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, student loan account information, contact information, driver’s license numbers and financial information, according to the lawsuit.
The department told students it would share nonpublic personal information with third parties “only as necessary to process and service [the] loan and as permitted by the Privacy Act of 1974,” according to the lawsuit.
However, Carter and her department together “have violated the applicable statutory and regulatory restrictions by granting DOGE-affiliated individuals access to [the department’s] sensitive internal systems that house federal student financial aid information,” the lawsuit alleges, citing reporting from the Washington Post. These violations specifically go against the Privacy Act and the department’s pursuant regulations, according to the lawsuit.
“Defendants have a non-discretionary duty to protect records on individuals from unauthorized disclosure,” reads the lawsuit. Permitting Musk and DOGE to access student records “violates that duty,” the student union alleged.
On Thursday, a group of 18 Senate Democrats sent a letter to Carter, indicating they had launched a probe into reports that Musk and DOGE have “infiltrated” the department and “gained access to federal student loan data, which includes personal information for millions of borrowers,” according to the statement.
Organizing the statement were Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the party’s leader in the chamber.
“This deeply troubling report raises questions about potential exposures of Americans’ private data, the abuse of this data by the Trump Administration, and whether officials who have access to the data may have violated the law or the federal government’s procedures for handling sensitive information,” reads the statement from the Democratic senators.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DOGE also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Treasury data on millions of Americans, and states
Congressional Democrats have
On Thursday, a judge temporarily limited the access that DOGE has to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Services, which issues and receives trillions of dollars in payments on behalf of the federal government. Two DOGE employees will retain read-only access to the system: Tom Krause, the chief executive of Cloud Software Group, and Marko Elez, an engineer who has worked for Musk’s SpaceX and social-media platform X. Elez has reportedly resigned over racist posts,
The next stage of legal challenges to DOGE’s access to Treasury computer systems is likely to be a lawsuit by 12 state attorneys general against DOGE over the group’s access to government systems. The 12 said in a statement released Thursday that they would file a lawsuit to attempt to block this access.
The states joining the statement were Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island and Vermont.
The attorneys said the access Bessent has granted Musk and DOGE is “unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable,” adding that the data includes “Americans’ personal private information, state bank account data, and other information that is some of our country’s most sensitive data.
“DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on — payments that support health care, childcare, and other essential programs,” reads the statement from the attorneys general.
Government says DOGE employees are authorized detailees
In a lawsuit involving the Department of Labor, or DOL, which shares many of the same facts as the cases involving Treasury and the Department of Education — DOGE employees gained access to the department’s computer systems, as granted by the department head — the government defended its actions by saying that the DOGE employees in that case were detailed to the Department of Labor.
“[Detailees] report directly to the acting secretary of labor and his designees and follow the directions and guidance of DOL’s senior leadership, just as all DOL employees do and must,” reads a filing by the government. “DOL Detailees are required to be familiar with the legal rules governing access to DOL’s data systems and are required to comply with those rules.”
In a reply, the union suing the Department of Labor said merely detailing the DOGE employees to the department was insufficient, as DOGE lacks the requisite authority to issue such a detail because it is a “free-floating component” within the executive branch, not subservient to the Department of Labor.