On February 7, 2025, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 19 state attorneys general in suing the Trump administration and the Treasury Department over Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s new policy granting access to “special government employees,” including Elon Musk and personnel from the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to data and the central payment system operated by Treasury’s Bureau of Fiscal Services. The Treasury is responsible for processing trillions of dollars in payments to millions of Americans, including Social Security and veterans’ benefits, childcare tax credits, federal employee wages, and tax refunds. Due to the nature of these payments, Treasury has access to extremely sensitive, personally identifiable information, including Social Security and bank account numbers both of individual Americans and of the plaintiff states, as well as confidential financial information regarding federal payments.

Access to the troves of sensitive personal information housed at Treasury traditionally has been limited to a small number of career staff who hold security clearances, and the data is protected by federal privacy laws. Nevertheless, DOGE personnel were granted access to systems that, at a minimum, allowed them to view all data held by the Bureau of Fiscal Services and potentially allowed DOGE staffers to alter the data and even block individual payments to disfavored recipients. The extent of DOGE’s access was unclear, and state officials feared that their states’ and their constituents’ data would be compromised.

States sued to block DOGE access to Treasury payment systems on multiple grounds. First, Treasury’s grant of access exceeded the legal authority of the Department and the President. The policy changes violated the Administrative Procedures Act. Finally, blocking payments that had been allocated by Congress is unconstitutional under both the separation of powers doctrine and the Take Care clause.

The day after the suit was filed, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order halting all access to these Treasury systems to anyone besides civil servants who are trained in federal information security protocols and pass all necessary background checks and security clearances. The court subsequently granted a preliminary injunction on February 21, 2025, which it amended April 11, 2025, after the administration demonstrated that one DOGE employee had completed the required security clearance and training and financial disclosures. The plaintiff states filed an amended complaint on May 23, 2025.

As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk is not used to being told ‘no,’ but in our country, no one is above the law. The President does not have the power to give away our private information to anyone he chooses, and he cannot cut federal payments approved by Congress. This level of access for unauthorized individuals is unlawful, unprecedented, and unacceptable. DOGE has no authority to access this information, which they explicitly sought in order to block critical payments that millions of Americans rely on – payments that support health care, childcare, and other essential programs. Attorney General Tish James