Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To Let Doge Access Social Security Systems

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to clear the way for Elon Musk 's Department of Government Efficiency to access Social Security systems containing personal data on millions of Americans.

The emergency appeal is the first in a string of applications to the high court involving DOGE's swift-moving work across the federal government.

It comes after a judge in Maryland restricted the team's access to Social Security under federal privacy laws. The agency holds personal records on nearly everyone in the country, including school records, bank details, salary information and medical and mental health records for disability recipients, according to court documents.

The government says the team needs access to target waste in the federal government. Musk, now preparing to step back from his work with DOGE, has been focused on Social Security as an alleged hotbed of fraud. The billionaire entrepreneur has described it as a " Ponzi scheme " and insisted that reducing waste in the program is an important way to cut government spending.

Solicitor General John Sauer argued Friday that the judge's restrictions disrupt DOGE's important work and inappropriately interfere with executive-branch decisions. "Left undisturbed, this preliminary injunction will only invite further judicial incursions into internal agency decision-making," he wrote.