Injunction Bars Non-Senate-Confirmed Treasury and DOGE Staff From Accessing PII
A U.S. District Court of Southern New York judge granted a preliminary injunction Friday prohibiting Treasury Department employees who are not in a Senate-confirmed position from accessing department systems that contain personally identifiable information (PII) or financial information of payees.
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“The preliminary injunction substantially tracks the terms of the temporary restraining order (TRO) that is presently in place, in that it bars the Treasury Department from granting access to any member of the DOGE team within the Treasury Department to any payment record, payment systems, or any other data systems maintained by the Treasury Department containing personally identifiable information and/or confidential financial information of payees,” Judge Jeannette Vargas said.
The judge said, however, the plaintiffs "have not demonstrated that they are entitled to the broad and sweeping relief they seek, which would far exceed the scope of the present TRO to prohibit members of the DOGE team from developing automated (or even manual) processes to halt payments coming through Treasury Department payment systems.”
Case 25-01144 began when a coalition of 19 states filed a suit on Feb. 7 against the Trump administration to stop the unauthorized access to private information of Americans it provided to Elon Musk and DOGE (see 2502070050). Trump opposed the injunction on Feb. 11 (see 2502120036).
“Giving a private citizen unauthorized access to our nation’s central banking system endangers sensitive information that the State relies on in providing crucial services for Marylanders,” that state's Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) said in a press release Sunday. “I am happy that this preliminary injunction is in place so that we can put a stop to this reckless risk to our State and the people it serves.”