Federal Workers Sue Elon Musk and DOGE Over Sensitive Data Access – Legal Battle Unfolds

Federal Workers Sue Elon Musk and DOGE Over Sensitive Data Access – Legal Battle Unfolds

On February 11, 2025, over 100 current and former federal workers filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agency that Musk oversees. The case, filed in the Southern District of New York, accuses the agency of accessing sensitive personnel records without proper authorization or national-security vetting. The lawsuit was brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and several privacy groups, with the plaintiffs seeking to halt DOGE’s access to personal data held by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the U.S. government's HR agency. The heart of the issue revolves around claims that DOGE's agents, many of whom were young employees of Musk’s private companies, gained "administrative" access to OPM’s computer systems. According to the lawsuit, this was done without undergoing the rigorous vetting processes required for access to such sensitive data. The suit specifically calls out Charles Ezell, the current direc…