Yves here. Trump continues to suffer legal setbacks. The question is the degree to which he can keep defying the courts, as he has seemed determined to do with deportations. With that apparatus, Trump looks to have solid control over the military, Federal Marshals, and the FBI, so he appears able to continue to thump his nose at orders. It’s not clear that DOGE has yet achieved the same level of control across the many departments and agencies it has targeted.
Note that judges can impose civil contempt penalties. That remarkably can include incarceration, but per the Federal Marshals point above, a judge would not succeed, as he could normally, in ordering the gens d’armes in court to haul away the contempt perp. However, one interview of a judge indicated that the penalties are a maximum of $.1000 a day, as with criminal contempt, but can be set to double every day the defiance continues. From a Politico interview with former Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin:
Assuming that the judge — Judge Boasberg or any other judge for that matter — eventually concludes that the government deliberately violated a court order, what are the judge’s options?
I can tell you that every former judge I know has been asked this question by somebody in the media, including me. I think the only real option is civil contempt….
You could also sanction the person, and that’s always interesting, because you could have fines that double every day, so it can get serious fast. I don’t know how good at math you are, but a $1,000 fine doubling every day can quickly add up to real money — not for the United States government, but for an individual. If somebody was individually sanctioned, that adds up…
By Jessica Corbett. Originally published at Common Dreams
Defenders of the Social Security Administration celebrated a federal judge’s Thursday order blocking U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from access to millions of Americans’ SSA records.
“The DOGE team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack,” wrote Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander, who issued a temporary restraining order.
In her 137-page opinion, Hollander explained that “to facilitate the expedition, SSA provided members of the SSA DOGE team with 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.”
“Yet, 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 SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government,” noted the appointee of former President Barack Obama.
“Indeed, the government has not even attempted to explain why a more tailored, measured, titrated approach is not suitable to the task. Instead, the government simply repeats its incantation of a need to modernize the system and uncover fraud. Its method of doing so is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer,” asserted the judge, concluding that “plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that such action is arbitrary and capricious,” and violates the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.
Thank you to @AFSCME, @ActiveRetirees, and @AFTunion for standing up to Musk in court to protect Americans’ privacy.
Today is a big step forward, but we can’t take our eye off the ball. Elon Musk must come before Congress to tell us what he plans to do. He is not above the law! https://t.co/z5qbDWTUNk
— Rep. John Larson (@RepJohnLarson) March 20, 2025
The plaintiffs in this case are three unions—the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Alliance for Retired Americans, and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—represented by Democracy Forward. In addition to DOGE, they sued the SSA and its acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, over the “data grab.”
“This is a major win for working people and retirees across the country,” AFSCME president Lee Saunders said of the Thursday order. “The court saw that Elon Musk and his unqualified lackeys present a grave danger to Social Security and have illegally accessed the data of millions of Americans. This decision will not only force them to delete any data they have currently saved, but it will also block them from further sharing, accessing, or disclosing our Social Security information.”
AFT president Randi Weingarten also welcomed the development, saying that “no one filed for Social Security believing their personal assets would be appropriated by a billionaire who attacks Social Security as a ‘Ponzi scheme.’ Americans must be allowed to retire with dignity and grace without having to worry about Elon Musk jeopardizing their savings.”
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward—which is involved with multiple court battles challenging the Trump administration’s sweeping assault on the federal government—pledged Thursday that “our team will continue its legal efforts to ensure that this data remains protected and that those responsible are held accountable.”
Judges who have ruled against Trump and Musk’s agenda have faced threats of violence and impeachment.
WATCH: Social Security Works President Nancy Altman discusses Elon Musk’s Social Security cuts with NBC News’ Liz Kreutz @LizKreutzNews @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/f6yPfUvrb1
— Social Security Works (@SSWorks) March 20, 2025
While the Musk-led entity’s attempt to gut the federal government has sparked various legal fights, “this ruling is the first time a federal court has explicitly mandated that Musk and DOGE delete unlawfully obtained data,” according to Democracy Forward.
Critics of the administration’s attempt to “sabotage” the SSA—which includes cutting phone services, laying off workers, shutting down offices, and stealing seniors’ earned benefits—warn that Trump and Musk are pushing for privatization.