08/13/2025

Federal Appeals Court Clears DOGE to Access Agencies' Sensitive Records

The panel's vote was divided, but it still passed

On Tuesday, a divided appeals court panel said the Trump administration’s U.S. DOGE Service, the nongovernmental task force, can access sensitive data held by federal agencies, rejecting concerns that the move runs afoul of privacy law.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit concluded that plaintiffs in the case, a group that includes labor unions and individual people receiving government benefits, had failed to show they could prevail in their legal challenge.

The plaintiffs had asked courts to keep DOGE representatives from accessing personal information held by the Treasury Department, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of Education (DOE), saying that this action violated federal privacy law.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.