Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A federal judge issued a ruling Friday declining to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal data within the Department of Labor, but noted that he has “concerns.”The ContextFriday’s ruling is the first victory for Musk, who leads DOGE, a nongovernmental task force with the stated goal of slashing government spending and paring down federal bureaucracy by firing thousands of workers.DOGE has drawn sharp scrutiny for seeking unfettered access to the internal data of agencies across the government, including the Labor Department, U.S. Treasury, Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Small Business Administration and more.
Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol on January 20 in Washington, D.C.
Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk arrives for the inauguration of President Donald Trump in the U.S. Capitol on January 20 in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Lamarque – Pool/Getty Images
What To KnowU.S. District Judge John Bates, appointed by former President George W. Bush, wrote in his nine-page ruling that the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and four other government workers unions, which filed the lawsuit, did not show they had standing to sue.A plaintiff must have standing—meaning they have to show a connection to the law or action being challenged and that they have been harmed by it—in order to bring a lawsuit.”But on the current record, plaintiffs have failed to establish standing,” Bates said in his ruling. “So although the Court harbors concerns about defendants’ alleged conduct, it must deny plaintiffs’ motion at this time.”The ruling came after lawyers for the plaintiffs made their case during a hearing before Bates earlier Friday.”We’ve demonstrated that by having access to these systems, the personal information in them is necessarily at harm with the disclosure of sensitive information,” one attorney argued. “It’s unlawful.”Lawyers for the Justice Department argued DOGE employees were authorized to access the Department of Labor’s data under existing privacy law and that they would not share the information with anyone outside the agency.Bates pushed back, saying the Trump administration was asking for “a great deal of confidence in people who, according to public reports, are very young, who have never been in the federal government, who have never had any training with respect to the hands of confidential information.”The judge was referring to recent reports indicating that the DOGE employees who have been granted access to sensitive information across different agencies are a group of 19- to 24-year-old engineers with no government experience.In his ruling Friday night, Bates added that organizations can establish standing in one of two ways: by asserting that their members have been harmed by a law or action, or that they themselves have been harmed by it.”But, on the present record, they satisfy neither,” he wrote.This story is developing and will be updated as further information becomes available.
