A federal judge this week issued an order restricting the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing federal databases at the Office of Personnel Management, which she found “violated the law and bypassed its established cybersecurity practices” when granting DOGE access to its IT systems.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote, a Clinton appointee, granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the American Federation of Government Employees and unions that prevents DOGE from accessing the databases that house records on federal employees. Cote also noted that the scope of the injunction will be specified in a later order.
“Following President Trump’s inauguration, OPM granted broad access to many of those systems to a group of individuals associated with the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”), even though no credible need for this access had been demonstrated. In doing so, OPM violated the law and bypassed its established cybersecurity practices,” Cote wrote in her opinion, which was issued Monday.
“In brief, the OPM records at issue concern the plaintiffs’ most sensitive private affairs,” Cote continues. “They include social security numbers, health care information, banking information, and information about family members. For some people, disclosure of information in OPM systems could subject them to danger.”
The judge goes on to rule that DOGE “disclosed OPM records to individuals who had no legal right of access to those records. In doing so, the defendants violated the Privacy Act and departed from cybersecurity standards that they are obligated to follow.”
Cote calls this “a breach of law and of trust,” noting that “Tens of millions of Americans depend on the Government to safeguard records that reveal their most private and sensitive affairs.”
She also criticized the Trump administration’s defense in the case, writing that “The Government has defended this lawsuit by repeatedly invoking a mantra that it adhered to all established procedures and safeguards. It did not. Without a full-throated recognition that the law and established cybersecurity procedures must be followed, the risk of irreparable harm will continue to exist.”
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