Federal Judge Extends Block on DOGE Access to Treasury Payment System

A federal judge extended a block on Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency from accessing the U.S. Treasury Department’s payment system.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas issued a preliminary injunction after previously ordering a temporary restraining order on the supposed cost-cutting agency, fulfilling a request from over a dozen Democratic state attorneys general for the judge to issue the order.

The order bars the Treasury Department from granting any member of DOGE access to its payment or other data systems that contain personally identifiable information or confidential financial information of payees.

“More fundamentally, there is a realistic danger that the rushed and ad hoc process that has been employed to date by the Treasure DOGE team has increased the risk of exposure of the states’ information,” Vargas said in her decision.

But Vargas also said the states were not entitled to prohibit members of DOGE from developing automated or manual processes to halt payments coming through the Treasury Department’s payment systems.

Vargas’ order comes after she previously extended a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who heard the case on an emergency basis.

Twenty Republican state attorneys general also filed an amicus curiae brief Friday against the Democratic states’ motion for a preliminary injunction.

In their brief, they say a block on DOGE members’ access to the payment systems would amount to an assault on the separation of powers and the president’s powers under the U.S. Constitution.

“Ultimately, plaintiffs here are upset because one set of bureaucrats in the executive branch have access to data that they believe only other bureaucrats in the executive branch should have access to,” the Republican state attorneys say in their brief.