A federal judge in Maryland, Deborah L. Boardman, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management from sharing sensitive data with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team. This decision halts the team’s audit of the Education Department’s student loan systems for two weeks amidst ongoing litigation by the American Federation of Teachers, which argued that members’ private information was at risk. Judge Boardman expressed concerns over the need for access to such sensitive data and indicated that the union could likely prevail in its lawsuit, highlighting privacy protection.
On Monday, a federal judge in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management from sharing sensitive information with members of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency team and their associates.
The ruling, made by Judge Deborah L. Boardman at the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland, halts the audit that Mr. Musk’s representatives had claimed to be conducting on the Education Department’s student loan systems for a period of two weeks while the lawsuit is in progress.
Judge Boardman noted that the government had failed to convincingly demonstrate that Mr. Musk’s team had a legitimate requirement for access to such private information in fulfilling their responsibilities.
“DOGE affiliates have been granted access to systems of record that contain some of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive data — Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, income and assets, citizenship status, and disability status — and their access to this trove of personal information is ongoing,” Judge Boardman stated. “There is no reason to believe their access to this information will end anytime soon because the government believes their access is appropriate.”
The American Federation of Teachers, which represents over 1.8 million educators, filed a lawsuit to prevent members of the Musk team from accessing the department’s data systems, asserting that it held private information provided by its members in relation to student aid for themselves or their families.
“We initiated this lawsuit to protect individuals’ privacy, as when people provide their financial and other personal information to the federal government — particularly to secure financial aid for their children to attend college or to obtain a student loan — they expect that their data will be safeguarded and used solely for its intended purpose, not repurposed for other reasons,” Randi Weingarten, the organization’s president, remarked in a statement.
In a related case last week, a judge declined to issue a restraining order against Mr. Musk’s team, concluding that the group bringing the lawsuit did not sufficiently prove that a cohort of students with similar grievances had experienced clear harm from having their data analyzed by Musk’s affiliates.
However, Judge Boardman determined that the mere disclosure of sensitive personal data to Mr. Musk’s team constituted a tangible injury, irrespective of any theoretical issues such as potential identity theft.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs had sought similar restrictions to be applied to the Treasury Department, but Judge Boardman opted not to pursue this, given that a separate judge had already barred Mr. Musk’s team from accessing sensitive data there.
She expressed her belief that the teachers’ union was likely to succeed in its lawsuit, asserting that the restraining order was essential until the members of Mr. Musk’s team assigned to the Education Department could justify why they could not perform their analysis using data that excluded or redacted sensitive information.