Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, AGENCY NEWS—Supreme Court majority allows DOGE to access Social Security data, (Jun 9, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

“[O]nce again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them.”

At the end of last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling granting an application for stay sought by the Social Security Administration and other members of the Trump administration after the en banc Fourth Circuit denied its request to stay a preliminary injunction that would have kept the SSA from granting DOGE affiliates access to SSA records. As a result of the Court’s ruling, DOGE will now be able to access the data it seeks.

Decisions below. On April 17, 2025, a Maryland district court preliminarily enjoined the Social Security Administration (SSA) from granting DOGE affiliates access to various SSA records, subject to certain exceptions. Next, the en banc Fourth Circuit denied the Government’s request to stay the preliminary injunction by a vote of nine to six.

Injunction stayed. The High Court, to which the government next resorted, on Friday June 6, 2025, stayed the April 17 preliminary injunction entered by the district court, pending the disposition of the Fourth Circuit appeal and “disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, if such a writ is timely sought.” Should cert be denied, the Court added, the stay should terminate automatically. If granted, it should terminate upon the sending down of the Court’s judgment.

The Court majority explained that, considering the factors applicable to determining whether to grant a stay, it had determined that the application of the factors in this case warranted granting the requested stay. “We conclude that, under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work.”

Justice Kagan would have denied the application.

Dissent. Justice Jackson, with whom Justice Sotomayor joined, dissented from the grant of application for stay. “Today the Court grants ‘emergency’ relief that allows the Social Security Administration (SSA) to hand DOGE staffers the highly sensitive data of millions of Americans,” Justice Jackson wrote. “The Government wants to give DOGE unfettered access to this personal, non-anonymized information right now—before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE’s access is lawful.” The government, however, did not substantiate its request by showing that either it or the public would suffer irreparable harm absent the Court’s action, explained Jackson. “In essence,” she wrote, “the ‘urgency’ underlying the Government’s stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.”

“That sentiment has traditionally been insufficient to justify the kind of extraordinary intervention the Government seeks,” Jackson added. “But, once again, this Court dons its emergency-responder gear, rushes to the scene, and uses its equitable power to fan the flames rather than extinguish them.”

The district court case is No. 1:25-cv-596. The Fourth Circuit case is No. 25-1411. The Supreme Court docket is No. 24A1063.

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