Dive Brief:
- A federal judge declined Monday to block staffers from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive data at the U.S. Department of Education.
- The University of California Student Association requested a temporary restraining order, arguing in its lawsuit that DOGE staffers’ access to student data represented an “enormous and unprecedented” privacy intrusion.
- However, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the student group failed to show it would likely face “irreparable harm” without emergency relief. Moss did not rule on whether the group has standing to sue or whether it has stated claims that could warrant relief in the future.
Dive Insight:
The University of California Student Association sued the Education Department in early February, arguing that the agency was violating federal privacy laws and regulations by allowing DOGE to access sensitive student data.
The lawsuit came after The Washington Post reported that DOGE staffers had accessed several of the department’s systems, including federal financial aid data.
In court documents, DOGE staffer Adam Ramada confirmed that a handful of federal employees were combing through the Education Department’s contracts, grants and programs — including the federal student loan portfolio — to root out “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
That includes two workers directly employed by the Education Department and four “on detail” from other government agencies, according to court documents filed last week.
“All six employees have attended an ethics briefing and received security training, and are complying with relevant rules governing employee access to personal information to the best of their knowledge,” the Education Department said.
The department argued that the student group couldn’t prove that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm because its arguments rested on the risk of “future injury,” such as potential data breaches and DOGE sharing the data for immigration enforcement.
Moss, an Obama appointee, sided with the Education Department’s arguments.
“Courts find dissemination of information to be an irreparable injury where, for example, highly sensitive information will be made public, or ends up in the hands of someone with no obligation to keep it confidential,” Moss wrote.
However, courts haven’t found that irreparable injury is likely in cases where the information is given to individuals “obligated to keep it confidential,” Moss said, pointing to Ramada’s attestation that the federal six employees will comply with relevant privacy laws and regulations.
The University of California Student Association isn’t the only group suing to block DOGE’s access to the Education Department’s sensitive data.
The American Federation of Teachers, along with other labor union groups, sued the Education Department and two other government agencies earlier this month over DOGE’s access to their data. They also requested a temporary restraining order, and the judge will listen to arguments over the matter on Wednesday.
