A coalition of 19 state attorneys general, including California, has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to prevent Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing sensitive personal data held by the U.S. Treasury Department.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, challenges DOGE's unprecedented access to the Treasury's central payment system, which contains Social Security numbers, bank account details, and other private information of millions of Americans.
In response to the legal challenge, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction early Saturday blocking DOGE's access to these Treasury records. The judge also ordered anyone previously granted access since January 20 to destroy all copied materials from Treasury systems.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading the lawsuit, expressed concerns about both privacy and security risks. "The president does not have the power to give away our private information to anyone he chooses," James stated.
The Treasury Department maintains that DOGE only has "read only" access to its systems and cannot affect expenditures. However, state officials argue this level of access violates multiple federal laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974 and the Tax Reform Act of 1976.
The lawsuit seeks to permanently prevent DOGE, which was created to identify government spending inefficiencies, from accessing the Treasury's payment systems that handle trillions in annual disbursements including Social Security checks, veterans' benefits, and federal salaries.
Other states joining the lawsuit include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
A hearing has been scheduled for February 14 to further address this matter.