The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) said Thursday that DOGE employees' access to sensitive personal data didn't violate the 1974 Privacy Act. The government units presented their arguments in an answer to a complaint from the American Federation of Government Employees as part of a case the union brought against them. They then asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.
The Privacy Act includes cybersecurity provisions that can be used to hold the Department of Government Efficiency liable for data abuse, Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Mario Trujillo said Thursday.
The University of California Student Association dismissed its case against the Department of Education and Education Secretary Linda McMahon concerning the Department of Government Efficiency's access to sensitive information Wednesday. McMahon had filed a motion to dismiss the case April 8 over lack of standing and the association's inability to show irreparable harm (see 2504080051). The student association had sued the Education Department in February in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for its alleged unlawful and continuous disclosure of sensitive information to DOGE (see 2502100074).
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) filed a motion to dismiss a case about DOGE's allegedly illegal seizure of personnel records and payment system data, claiming that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) lacked standing to sue, among other issues.
The U.S. District Court for Northern California Friday partially dissolved a preliminary injunction 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. The court ruled the states were unlikely to succeed on their E-Government and Privacy Act of 1974 claims.
FTC Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya on Friday asked a federal court to expedite their reinstatement at the agency, arguing the law is clear that their firings were illegal.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument Wednesday on the National Treasury Employees Union’s pursuit of an emergency stay of President Donald Trump's executive order slashing staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The challenge is one of several that NTEU, which represents FCC employees, has against recent efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration (see 2503310047).
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon filed a motion to dismiss a case about the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s access to sensitive information in the department Tuesday, saying that the California Student Association -- plaintiff in the case -- lack standing and haven't shown irreparable harm.
In a split decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday granted a motion from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Education Department to stay a pending appeal in a case about the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) access to sensitive personal information. The U.S. District Court for Maryland previously denied the stay on the grounds that the plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm without the preliminary injunction (see 2503280058).
On Thursday, District Judge Denise Cote partially rejected the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) motion to dismiss a case alleging violations of the 1974 Privacy Act.