Federal Government Again Urges Dismissal of States' DOGE Privacy Suit
The federal government renewed its call for a court to drop a privacy suit against data-collection efforts at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arguing that a coalition of states lack standing to bring charges.
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Case 1:25-cv-01144 began in February, when 19 states, led by New York, lodged a complaint against President Donald Trump, seeking a temporary restraining order and a permanent injunction barring him from granting non-Treasury Department personnel at DOGE access to Treasury payment or data systems containing personally identifiable information (see 2502070050).
Months later, in May, an amended complaint from the states again asked that the court block DOGE from accessing Treasury data (see 2505270017).
In Monday's court document, the federal government noted the potential injuries the states claimed didn't suffice to establish standing.
The government also noted, "In [a] nearly identical case, Plaintiffs challenged the granting of IT access to DOGE-affiliated employees at Treasury and other agencies," but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the plaintiffs lacked standing, citing case 8:25-cv-00430, AFT v. Bessent.
The federal government also said the states didn't establish causation and redressability, the other required elements of standing.
Moreover, the government attacked the states' Administrative Procedure Act (APA) claims. Since "both the granting of systems access to Treasury DOGE Team members and the flagging of potentially improper payments for review by the certifying agency lie within Treasury’s discretion," the plaintiff's APA claims fail too, it said.
For these reasons and others, the federal government asked the U.S. District Court of Southern New York to dismiss the states' complaint.
President Donald Trump has opposed the states' actions before, arguing an injunction would violate the separation of powers (see 2502120036), and that the complaint is deficient (see 2507250026).
U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas in February granted a partial injunction that prohibited Treasury employees not in a Senate-confirmed position from accessing department systems that contain sensitive or financial information of payees (see 2502240008). Later, it was partially dissolved as the court ruled the states were unlikely to succeed on their E-Government and Privacy Act of 1974 claims (see 2504140036).
After the amended complaint was filed in May, Vargas ruled that the preliminary injunction order should be modified so that the department and department secretary can't provide access to payment information or systems containing sensitive information unless DOGE personnel handling it have undergone specific training and vetting (see 2505280033).