The judge said union litigation against the labor department system could move forward
Unions say allowing the Musk administration to access the system efficiently violates the Federal Privacy Act because they contain medical and financial records of millions of Americans. They also argue that Doge does not have legal authority to direct the actions of congressional institutions such as the Department of Labor.
In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Bates said the statements could move forward in court. However, the judge dismissed some other more specific arguments raised by the union, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ violation of health care laws by allowing outpatient clinics – which was rejected by the judge.
The Federal Privacy Act generally prohibits the agency from disclosing records about a person to another agency unless the person first obtains written permission.
“This court was the first to recognize someone’s name and SSN in line 648 of the spreadsheet, from peeping at someone’s bedroom window is ‘and -Bend’,” Bates wrote. He said that despite this, Congress enacted the Privacy Act to protect the privacy of people identified in the federal maintenance system so that individuals can trust their information, and only those employees with effective needs can access their information.
“So, an invasion into the field – even if the sphere actually contains only a row of millions of dollars in the data set, it is equivalent to injury similar to the invasion of other private spheres, such as at home,” Bates wrote. “Bates also said the case could go through many “twilight” before it is resolved. “This is a dynamic case that has evolved before the court by a series of facts,” he wrote.
Doge also accessed other government databases, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the IRS and the Social Security Bureau, and has filed several lawsuits.
