Article

2025-02-09 Government Corruption

Judge won't block DOGE from accessing Labor Department systems

[THEHILL] A federal judge Friday evening refused to block the Labor Department from giving Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to confidential systems or firing employees for refusing to hand over the credentials.

U.S. District Judge John Bates found the plaintiffs hadn't show enough injury to have legal standing to bring the lawsuit.

''This data includes the medical and financial records of millions of Americans,'' wrote Bates. ''But on the current record, plaintiffs have failed to establish standing. So although the Court harbors concerns about defendants' alleged conduct, it must deny plaintiffs' motion at this time.''

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the AFL-CIO and several of its affiliate government employee unions, claims that giving Musk's team access to the Labor Department systems violates federal privacy law and is without any legal authority.

At a hearing earlier in the day, Bates voiced concerns about the DOGE team's access and its broader efforts to rapidly implant itself across the federal bureaucracy in the early weeks of President Trump's administration.

''A couple people who, according to public reports, are very young, who have never been in the federal government, never had any training with respect to the hands of confidential information — you're asking me to just put absolute confidence in the fact that nothing inappropriate will happen,'' said Bates, an appointee of the younger former President Bush.

''Doesn't seem to me to be a setup that would very easily give me confidence that there will be no misadventure,'' the judge continued, laughing under his breath.

Bates's ruling doesn't reach whether the access is unlawful, however, by finding the challengers had no legal standing.

Heading into the weekend, the plaintiffs have indicated they will expand their lawsuit to other areas where DOGE has implanted, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. They also are considering adding the Education Department but may instead defer to Public Citizen's lawsuit on that front, which has already commenced.

Posted by Fred 2025-02-09 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11138 views ] Top

#1 U.S. District Judge John Bates found the plaintiffs hadn't show enough injury to have legal standing to bring the lawsuit.

Perhaps they will.

Meet the Silicon Valley hatchet man leading DOGE's young nerd squadron

Posted by Skidmark 2025-02-09 07:00|| 2025-02-09 07:00|| Front Page Top

#2 The judges will have to be dealt with. I would pull some of their security clearances to take them out of the pool for significant cases.

Posted by Super Hose 2025-02-09 09:18|| 2025-02-09 09:18|| Front Page Top

#3 A different judge put a TRO on DOGE and, believe it not - The Secretary of Treasury, from accessing Treasury Dept Systems.

Posted by Lord Garth 2025-02-09 09:52|| 2025-02-09 09:52|| Front Page Top

#4 I should have also pointed out that many of the changes DOGE wanted to make (completing data categories in line item authorizations) are being implemented by career Dept of Treasury employees.

These are the kinds of things that are labor intensive and would eat up a lot of DOGE time if DOGE had to do it (and probably it would be illegal for DOGE to do it)

Posted by Lord Garth 2025-02-09 09:58|| 2025-02-09 09:58|| Front Page Top

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