Federal Employees, Others Want Resumption of DOGE, OPM Privacy Act Case
The American Federation of Government Employees and other groups asked a federal court to resume a case that challenges Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to sensitive information at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). DOGE's access violated the Privacy Act, the plaintiffs said.
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The case was stayed, along with most other civil cases, due to the federal government shutdown.
On Oct. 7, plaintiffs told the federal government’s counsel in an email that “this case is too pressing for such a stay, and that a stay violates Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.” The two parties conferred on Oct. 10, where plaintiffs said they “intended to move to lift the stay if the shutdown was not resolved in a reasonable period of time.”
In addition, the email noted, “an Executive Order still commands Defendant OPM and other federal agencies to establish ‘DOGE Teams’ to implement ‘the President’s DOGE Agenda,’ and to grant DOGE ‘full and prompt access’ to agency records.” As such, “every passing day is causing new harm to Plaintiffs and the public.”
The email also said that other courts have lifted stays in some cases, and/or kept previously set deadlines. Additionally, the federal government has “failed to demonstrate they have stopped disclosing records to DOGE in violation of the law,” and “there is ongoing harm from past disclosures.”
Case 1:25-cv-01237, filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern New York, began in February (see 2503170044).
Judge Denise Cote granted the federation’s motion for preliminary injunction in June, ruling that public interest favored this relief (see 2506090043). She later ordered OPM and DOGE to submit reports detailing DOGE employees' access to sensitive data and how those staffers were trained, to determine if the Privacy Act was violated (see 2506230052).