A federal judge has temporarily blocked Elon Musks Department of Government of Efficiency from accessing Americans personal data at the Social Security Administration. On Thursday, District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander argued that, while Musks minions claim they are on a mission to root out fraud and abuse at the agency, they havent provided any evidence of their claims, nor have they shown why it requires access to millions of Americans sensitive information. The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion, Hollander said, in her court order. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack. The case before the court concerns a lawsuit brought by numerous groups representing retirees, including the Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. The government has argued that it needs access to Americans data to conduct its probe into supposed mass fraud. Hollander issued a temporary restraining order to block DOGEs access to that information. On Thursday, the judge said that DOGE had been given unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses. Defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSAs entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government, she said.We are grateful that the court took strong action to protect every Americans personal data, said Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, on Thursday. Seniors must be able to trust the Social Security Administration will protect their personal information and keep it from falling into the wrong hands. Musks other operations have also been met with legal challenges in recent weeks, a development that has spurred the billionaire to begin attacking those judges and calling for them to be impeached.Unfortunately, while a block on DOGEs access to data may seem like a win, the Social Security Administration hasunder the leadership of a DOGE-linked leaderrecently ushered in several policies that critics say will cripple the agency and obstruct its ability to dispense benefits to Americans. Critics contend that DOGEs ultimate goal is to discredit and ruin the federal program so that it can be closed down and taken over by the private sector.