Judge Rejects Government’s Attempt to Dismiss EFF Lawsuit Against OPM, DOGE, and Musk

NEW YORK—A lawsuit seeking to stop the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) from disclosing tens of millions of Americans’ private, sensitive information to Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) can continue, a federal judge ruled Thursday. 

Judge Denise L. Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York partially rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed Feb. 11 on behalf of two labor unions and individual current and former government workers across the country. This decision is a victory: The court agreed that the claims that OPM illegally disclosed highly personal records of millions of people to DOGE agents can move forward with the goal of stopping that ongoing disclosure and requiring that any shared information be returned. 

Cote ruled current and former federal employees “may pursue their request for injunctive relief under the APA [Administrative Procedure Act]. …  The defendants’ Kafkaesque argument to the contrary would deprive the plaintiffs of any recourse under the law.” 

“The complaint plausibly alleges that actions by OPM were not representative of its ordinary day-to-day operations but were, in sharp contrast to its normal procedures, illegal, rushed, and dangerous,” the judge wrote.  

The Court added: “The complaint adequately pleads that the DOGE Defendants ‘plainly and openly crossed a congressionally drawn line in the sand.'” 

OPM maintains databases of highly sensitive personal information about tens of millions of federal employees, retirees, and job applicants. The lawsuit by EFF, Lex Lumina LLP, This article has been indexed from Deeplinks