Supreme Court gave DOGE the keys to kingdom
By Noah Feldman / Bloomberg Opinion
The so-called Department of Government Efficiency may be about to lose its mojo now that Elon Musk has left the building and is feuding with Donald Trump. But a Supreme Court decision issued Friday could cement DOGE’s legacy in a particularly troubling way. By a 6-3 vote, the justices have allowed DOGE to access Social Security data for all Americans while a lawsuit challenging that access proceeds.
The strong implication is that the court will ultimately find that the White House — which, in this administration, effectively means the entire executive branch — can access this data indefinitely. In practice, that means one more substantial step in the direction of turning the U.S. into a country like China, where the government has a 360-degree view of every aspect of its citizens’ lives.
The executive order that created DOGE commanded all agencies to allow access to their data “consistent with applicable law.” The applicable law in this case is the Privacy Act. It says that agencies can only disclose personal data in narrow circumstances, such as when agency employees “have a need for the record in the performance of their duties.” Social Security Administration policy also limits employees’ data access.
Concerned about the consequences of allowing DOGE — a rapidly assembled White House unit created for Musk — access to personal information, a federal district court quickly told the Social Security Administration that it could not provide DOGE with the data. A federal appeals court agreed, and the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court, via its emergency docket, to overturn the order, which it did.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-supreme-court-gave-doge-the-keys-to-kingdom/
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