ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Supreme Court has handed DOGE at least a temporary victory. The team Elon Musk started can keep accessing information collected by the Social Security Administration. That includes Social Security numbers, medical and mental health records and family court information. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg is here to tell us about what is turning out to be a regular Friday court special. Nina, what did the court do, exactly?
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: In an unsigned order, the court temporarily overturned actions by two lower courts that had limited the DOGE team's access to sensitive private information at the Social Security Administration. The high court said - sent the case back to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond for a ruling on the merits of the case, which likely will take months, while DOGE continues to have access. The vote was 6 to 3, with the conservative supermajority ruling in favor of the DOGE team.
SHAPIRO: Did the dissenting three liberal justices have anything to say?
TOTENBERG: Justice Kagan noted her dissent separately. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, writing for herself and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, blasted the majority for giving the DOGE team unfettered access to unredacted personal information, quote, "before the courts have time to assess whether DOGE's access is lawful." In essence, she said, the government's so-called urgency about gaining this access, quote, "is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes." Although this has not been the way the process has worked in the past, Jackson said, "once again, this court dons its emergency responder gear, rushes to the scene and uses its equitable powers to fan the flames rather than extinguish them."
SHAPIRO: Wow. Go back for a minute and tell us about how this case started. Where did it come from?
TOTENBERG: Well, on his first day in office this year, Trump tasked his newly minted Department of Government Efficiency with modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity. Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King initially blocked the DOGE team from accessing confidential Social Security records. After a short time, she resigned rather than provide full access to the DOGE team. Her replacement, Leland Dudek, then granted DOGE what opponents called unfettered access to Social Security data systems.
Labor unions and grassroots advocacy organizations sued. They were worried that the Social Security Administration was providing personally identifiable information to unauthorized DOGE personnel, and they argued that by providing confidential Social Security Administration to DOGE, Social Security violated the federal Fair Privacy Act.
SHAPIRO: What does that law - the Fair Privacy Act - say?
TOTENBERG: The 1974 federal statute created a code for the collection, maintenance, use and dissemination of personal records and information stored by the federal government. Among other things, the law requires that individuals provide consent before their personal records are shared. The Trump administration contends that disclosing secure Social Security documents is permitted through one of the Privacy Act's 12 exceptions - agencies can share information internally when doing so is essential to performing official duties. Without access to secure records, the administration maintained, DOGE would be unable to modernize the federal government's technology infrastructure and detect systemic fraud.
SHAPIRO: NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg there on the Supreme Court handing the DOGE team at least a temporary win. Thank you, Nina.
TOTENBERG: Thank you, Ari. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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