Supreme Court Lets DOGE Access Social Security Records on Millions of Americans

On June 6, 2025, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's emergency application and stayed a district court order that had barred the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Social Security Administration systems. Judge Ellen Hollander of the District of Maryland had restricted DOGE's access to records containing Social Security numbers, medical and mental-health information, and family-court material; the Fourth Circuit had declined to disturb her order. The Supreme Court's unsigned order lifted those restrictions while the appeal proceeds and sent the case back to the Fourth Circuit for merits review. Justices Sotomayor and Jackson dissented, with Jackson writing that the government's claimed urgency amounted to the fact that it 'cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out.' In a companion order the same day, the Court also shielded DOGE from discovery sought by the watchdog group CREW in a Freedom of Information Act case.

The pair of orders let an entity of contested legal status reach one of the government's most sensitive personal-data holdings without a merits ruling on whether that access complies with the Privacy Act, and simultaneously limited outside scrutiny of how DOGE operates.

The stay remained in effect pending appellate proceedings.