'Dangerous Power Grab' as Supreme Court Sides With DOGE on Social Security Data

Defenders of Social Security are responding with critical anger to a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday that side with the Trump administration in a legal battle over access to sensitive data of tens of millions of Americans by the Department of Government Efficiency, the government-eviscerating agency first spearheaded by right-wing libertarian and mega-billionaire Elon Musk.

The unsigned emergency order from the court came in response to an emergency application from the Trump administration defending DOGE's ability to have access to Social Security databases that two labor unions, alongside the Alliance for Retired Americans, had file a legal suit to protect. By its ruling, the Supreme Court stayed a lower federal court's ruling that said DOGE must "disgorge" and "delete" any of the data it accessed or downloaded from the agency files.

While the underlying case plays out, DOGE is now authorized to retain the data and access to the information, which critics say cannot be entrusted to the newly-created department and unvetted personnel who control it.

"This is a sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people," said the coalition behind the challenge in response to the decision. "This ruling will enable President Trump and DOGE's affiliates to steal Americans' private and personal data. Elon Musk may have left Washington, D.C., but his impact continues to harm millions of people. We will continue to use every legal tool at our disposal to keep unelected bureaucrats from misusing the public's most sensitive data as this case moves forward."

"If Americans' personal Social Security data is misused or abused by this administration, the Supreme Court's majority will have been fully complicit."

While the majority ruling was unsigned, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elana Kagan backed what was described as a "blistering" dissent, authored by Jackson, countering the determination and warning against continued access for DOGE while the case makes its way through the lower courts.

"On the one hand, there is a repository of millions of Americans' legally protected, highly sensitive information that—if improperly handled or disseminated—risks causing significant harm," she wrote. "On the other, there is the government's desire to ditch the usual protocols for accessing that data, before the courts have even determined whether DOGE's access is lawful."

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, called the majority's ruling "extremely troubling" for a host of reasons.

"We echo the concerns of the minority, as articulated by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, that the decision creates 'grave privacy risks' by giving DOGE 'unfettered data access — despite its failure to show any need or any interest in complying with existing privacy safeguards,'" said Richtman. "It is hard to justify the court's action, especially in light of the incompetent, reckless manner in which DOGE has already interfered with the operations of the Social Security Administration, prompting a spike in new Social Security claims by older people who fear the situation will only get worse."

Devon Ombres, senior director for Courts and Legal Policy at the center-left Center for American Progress, echoed those concerns.

"This action by six far-right justices is an affront to every principle of government transparency and the rule of law. DOGE has shown no need to review every American’s personal information, and the high court provides no explanation in granting it access," said Ombres. "Americans have no way to know how DOGE will use or misuse this information, nor what DOGE is or what it is doing. Shame on the court for rubber-stamping this administration’s lawlessness and further undermining the public’s trust in government, which President Trump has eroded."

Citing Musk, who recently left his position at DOGE and has been engaged in a high-profile spat with President Donald Trump in recent days, Richtman said the Tesla and SpaceX founder and world's richest man cannot be trusted, giving the lies he told about Social Security fraud that "undermined people's faith in the system."

"This hardly inspires confidence that DOGE has either the sense of ethics or public service to be entrusted with Americans' private data, leading us to believe that the court simply is abetting another dangerous power grab by the Executive branch," said Richtman. "If Americans' personal Social Security data is misused or abused by this administration, the Supreme Court's majority will have been fully complicit."