DOJ: Court Should Continue Stay in DOGE, OPM Privacy Act Case During Shutdown
DOJ said Friday that the government shutdown prevents it from paying its lawyers to continue defending the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) against charges that it improperly accessed sensitive information. As such, DOJ asked a federal court not to resume the case that the American Federation of Government Employees and others brought earlier in the year.
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However, the plaintiffs asked that the case resume Oct. 22 because harms to the plaintiffs and the public grow worse daily (see 2510230016). Case 1:25-cv-01237 was stayed Oct. 2, the day after the federal government shutdown began, and DOJ lawyers were furloughed.
DOJ said Friday, “The Plaintiffs have not identified a persuasive reason why this case should be excepted from the continued stay.”
Filed in February in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, the plaintiff’s complaint alleges that DOGE's access to sensitive data at Office of Personnel Management violates the Privacy Act (see 2503170044).