Taxpayer Advocates and Unions Sue to Block DOGE From Accessing Sensitive IRS Data
Taxpayer advocates and unions filed a lawsuit Tuesday to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing and retaining sensitive data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
This is the 10th case filed to prevent DOGE from illegally accessing confidential information in federal government agencies, according to Democracy Docket’s internal database.
“DOGE and its game of governmental whack-a-mole has wreaked havoc on the
American system of government (perhaps a feature not a bug of its aims) and caused incredible concern for the privacy of the American public,” the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.
The Center for Taxpayer Rights, the Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communication Workers of America alleged DOGE started infiltrating the IRS on Feb. 13 and was granted access to tax systems and datasets Tuesday.
The plaintiffs said these systems have individuals’ personal information, like social security numbers, income, net worth, bank account details and how much they owe in taxes.
“It is highly unusual—and perhaps unprecedented in the contemporary era—to grant political appointees access to personal taxpayer data,” the plaintiffs said. “Even IRS commissioners do not typically have access to all taxpayer data systems.”
They said the IRS systems also contain confidential information about businesses, like profit and loss statements and payroll information. They noted this could include tax, records investigations or reports regarding Musk’s businesses — or his competitors’ businesses.
“No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,” the plaintiffs said.
In their lawsuit, they asked a federal district court in Washington, D.C to prohibit DOGE employees from “collecting, accessing, disclosing, or retaining return information or other personal information in IRS systems” because no law gives them the authority to do so.
They also implicated IRS officials, asking the court to prohibit them from disclosing confidential information to DOGE and order them to revoke DOGE’S access to the sensitive data. They said these officials violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not complying with privacy and security statutes.
A couple of judges already delivered losses to DOGE this month. Over a week ago, a New York judge blocked DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems. Also, a federal judge in Washington, D.C. extended a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking DOGE and the Trump administration from putting 2,220 USAID workers on paid leave.
“At every step, DOGE is violating multiple laws, from constitutional limits on executive power, to laws protecting civil servants from arbitrary threats and adverse action to crucial protections for data held by the government collected on hundreds of millions of Americans,” the plaintiffs in the IRS lawsuit said.