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US Supreme Court allows DOGE access to Social Security data
Earlier in February, DOGE's move to seek access to SSA data prompted the acting commissioner, Michelle King, to step down.
The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Department of Government Efficiency, billionaire Elon Musk's former department, broad access to the Social Security Administration's data systems.
This will allow the DOGE to access personal information of millions of Americans logged under the SSA, news agency Reuters reported.
Justices put on hold the order of Maryland-based US District Judge Ellen Hollander, who had largely blocked DOGE's access to "personally identifiable information" in data such as medical and financial records while litigation proceeded in a lower court. This move came at the Justice Department's request.
The court, which had a 6-3 conservative majority, did not provide a rationale for siding with the DOGE.
Two labor unions and an advocacy group sued to stop DOGE from accessing sensitive data at the SSA.
The plaintiffs of the lawsuit argued that SSA had been "ransacked" and that DOGE members had been installed at the agency without proper vetting or training and demanded access to some of its sensitive data systems.
Earlier in February, DOGE's move to seek access to SSA data prompted the acting commissioner, Michelle King, to step down against the backdrop of the Musk-security system issues.
ALSO READ | Top Social Security official resigns after Musk's DOGE seeks data access: Report
King chose to resign after over 30 years of service as she refused to provide the requested information to the DOGE staffers at the SSA.
A day later, the White House had said that the Trump administration put an "anti-fraud expert" temporarily in charge at the SSA. At the time, Trump also directed Musk and DOGE to identify fraud at the agency, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that several dead people have been receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.
"They haven't dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments and so their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things: Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them, Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money and number three, to protect the integrity of the system for hardworking Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives,” Leavitt had told Fox News.
Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the preservation of Social Security benefits, said that there is no way to overstate "how serious a breach this (DOGE seeks SSA data) is".
"And my understanding is that it has already occurred. The information collected and held securely by the Social Security Administration is highly sensitive," she had added.
SSA has the data of everyone with a Social Security number, Medicare, and every low-income American who has applied for Social Security's means-tested companion program, Supplemental Security Income.
ALSO READ | Elon Musk's DOGE requests access to sensitive US tax system, sparks privacy concerns
In addition, Social Security payments account for around $1.5 trillion, or a fifth, of the annual federal spending in the US. An audit from last year, a NYT report cited.
The agency is a major provider of government benefits, sending checks each month to more than 70 million recipients including retirees and disabled Americans.
